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Ask HN: Is it worth it to implement HTML5 microformats?
I remember hearing about microformats when they were first becoming a thing, but it never seemed like they really took off. Are there any measurable benefits to using them in an application these days? Are browsers adding special handling? Do they help with SEO?
- PaulHoule 9y agoGoogle and other search engines can read them, so can "semantic web" related tools. However they are many other ways you can embed metadata in HTML for which the same is true. People for whom the semantic web is real in 2017 recognize that you're going to have to opportunistically exploit whatever you will find. As for SEO, nothing is measurable unless you are Google, and that is the point. Microformats help search engine in their mission of presenting 'cards' of information on their search engine as opposed to providing links; this may be less likely to send traffic to your web site, but maybe you are happy if you see links to buy your product at Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon, etc. My caveat is that "fast" is an attribute that customers will notice, and JavaScript or not, every byte you send over the wire takes time. Some people think 50k of overhead to put metadata in an HTML document is a good trade off, other people try to fit the whole page into 5k, and their sites are fast in Africa, on an iPhone, wherever...