schema.org: Multiple search engines combine to build richer networks

We recently announced the official launch of Schema.org, a new project sponsored by Google, Bing and Yahoo, that will create and provide a common pattern for structured data markers on the web. Schema.org is designed to be a one-stop resource for webmasters to add tags to their web pages to help search engines better understand their sites.

At Google, we've been supporting structured tagging for years now. In 2009, we introduced a rich Web page summary to better present search results that describe people or contain comments. Since then, we have been constantly introducing new categories to enrich our web pages, including shopping and products, activities, recipes, and other types of information.

　　

Rich Web page Summary example: A search result that is enhanced by a structured markup. In this case, the rich Web page summary contains pictures, comments, and cooking times for recipes.

With the rapid rise in the use rate of the Web site webmaster community for rich Web pages, we are now able to display a rich Web page summary in search results of more than 10 times times as early as two years ago.

We want to make open networks more colorful and practical. We understand that it takes time and effort to add this tag to your Web page, and that it's much more difficult to add tags if each search engine makes different requests for data. That's why we work with other search engines to provide a common set of patterns, just as we worked together in 2006 to support a common standard for sitemaps. With schema.org, anyone on the site can improve the display of their sites in Google, Bing, and Yahoo search results, and may improve their performance on other search engines in the future.

Now, let us discuss with you the schema.org details of the webmaster:

1) schema.org contains a number of new tag types.

We have added more than 100 new types and have retained all of the existing rich Web page summary types. If you've seen how to add a rich page summary tag before, but there are no entries in the existing type that are related to your site, then you need to look at it again. Here are some of the most popular types:

• Creative works: Creative works, books, movies, music recordings, recipes, TV dramas

• Embedded non-text objects: Audio objects, picture objects, video objects

• Activities

• Organization

• people

• Locations, local businesses, restaurants

• Products, specials, comprehensive offers

• Comments, comprehensive ratings

You can also choose to view a complete list of all schema.org types. You might be able to use the new tag type for future Rich Web page digest formats and other types of improvements to help people find the content of your site more easily when searching.

2) schema.org using microscopic data.

We have provided three different types of structured data marking standards, including microdata, microdata, and RDFa. But in the future schema.org will focus only on one format to create a simpler model for webmasters and improve consistency among data-dependent search engines. We have some arguments over what existing standards people prefer, but we've found that microscopic data can be balanced between RDFA scalability and the simplicity of the micro-format, so we decided to use this format.

If you need to understand the microscopic data as a whole and the conventions followed by schema.org, you can read the schema.org introductory guide first.

3 We will continue to support the existing rich Web page summary tag format.

If you have already used a micro-format or RDFA to mark your Web page, then we will continue to support the criteria you use. One caveat to note is that although it's OK to choose to use the new schema.org tag or choose to continue using the existing micro-format or RDFA tag, you should avoid mixing these formats on the same page, because this can confuse our parser.

4 Use the Rich Web page Summary test tool to test your markup.

It is useful to test your Web pages with tags, which ensures that we can parse the data correctly. To do this, you should use the Rich Web Page Digest test tool, just as you did with the rich Web page summary tag format. Note that although the test tool will display the markup information parsed from the page, it is not yet possible to display a rich page summary preview of the schema.org tag. We will soon add this feature.

schema.org website content and rich Web page summary test tools are used in English. However, Google will display a rich Web page summary in search results around the world, so there's no need to wait, so start tagging your pages now.

For more information on rich Web pages and their relationship to schema.org, you can view the rich Web page Summary schema.org FAQ section.