Microformats

This website contains microformats, small data formats embedded within web pages which allow the content to be better understood by computers. This allows people, in turn, to be able be able to copy and move information from one source to another much more easily.

The main use here is the TV recommendations, which are marked up using the hCalendar format. Whilst you won't notice this if you're just reading through the website, there are some tools you can use which may prove useful.

If you use Firefox as your web browser, the add-on Operator allows you to perform actions using microformats, such as adding an event (or, in this case, TV programme) to your Google Calendar.

Another Firefox add-on, Tails, allows you to view all the microformats embedded within a webpage, and perform actions using customisable scripts, which you can either write yourself, or download.

There don't seem to be many other browser tools available yet, although both Jon Hicks and Ben Ward have some ideas about how they might work. With the news that Microsoft, as well as many other large software companies, are supporting microformats, we may well see more support for this simple technology soon.