Operator – Pick of the Week

June 16, 2008

Operator is a plug-in for Firefox that enables highlighting microformats on a web site.  Microformats are content types on a web site that have been formated a specific way to highlight the type of content they are.  For example, if you wanted to put contact information on a site you can use specific html tags and classes to create the contact information and then when visitors with Operator come to your site, it will highlight your info and enable them to interact with it in different ways.  The idea is a little difficult to explain, but if you get the extension and go the Microformats calendar example page, you should see some sample events show up.

The idea of microformats to display content types on a site is a relatively new one, however the idea makes sense.  While Operator might not be the best way to get this data in the future, it is the best way I have found now, so check it out.