Microformats are a set of simple, open data formats that add structured, machine-readable information to standard HTML. They are designed for web publishers, bloggers, and developers who want to make the data on their websites—such as contact details, calendar events, or reviews—easily consumable by search engines, social readers, and other tools without requiring complex APIs or separate data files. By using common HTML classes, you semantically mark up existing content, making it more valuable and portable across the web.

• Simple HTML-based syntax: Use common class attributes like h-card, h-event, or h-review in your existing HTML to define structured data types without learning a new syntax or breaking your page layout.
• Enhanced discoverability: The structured data you embed helps search engines and other parsers better understand your content, which can improve how it appears in search results and feeds.
• Broad parser support: A wide range of open-source parser libraries exists for languages like PHP, Python, and JavaScript, making it straightforward to both publish and consume microformats data programmatically.
• Backwards compatibility: The specification is designed to work alongside and upgrade from older microformats versions, ensuring long-term stability for published data.
• Community-driven vocabularies: The formats are developed through open community processes to solve real-world publishing needs for people, events, reviews, and more.