
Ask HN: Is it worth it to implement HTML5 microformats? - brightball
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?
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PaulHoule
Google 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...

