Re: Firefox 3 UI concept for Semantic Data

Ben Adida wrote:
> Looks interesting. I do wonder if it's a bit early to *standardize* how
> all browsers do semantic data, that we need to try out a good number of
> approaches before we find the one that fits.

I wasn't clear in my first post :). By "standardize", I meant that we'll
be pushing for the Margin Marks concept as being the default method of
viewing Microformats. The user will have the option of hiding the Margin
Marks bar completely (for the page, for the session, or forever).
Different visualization schemes could be selected via the semantic data
UI if the user doesn't like the Margin Marks concept.

I agree that it might be a bit early to standardize UI concepts...
however, this has to do with the Mozilla release cycle and what is going
into Firefox 3.

Semantic data is still viewed as a very small part of Firefox 3, so
they're not going to wait until the various communities give them input.

They have a release schedule to stick to and will ship with whatever is
available at the time. The next update to the semantic data UI and
programming API might not come for some time (12 - 18 months)... so it's
important to get as much right the first time as possible.

If end-users have a bad experience with semantic data/Microformats the
first time they try it... it'll hurt RDFa, Microformats, and the rest of
the semantic data communities.

We're trying to make sure that the UI for semantic data isn't botched.
>From our discussions with Mike, it looks as if not much is going to
change from Operator 0.8 unless there is some hard lobbying by people
outside of the Mozilla community.

Operator has about 6 or 7 different UIs for dealing with Microformats.
Most users tend to use the version that is installed by default
(drop-downs tied to certain services like Google and Yahoo). People have
been working on this UI problem for some time now and we have to pick a
good default in order to enhance the user experience.

I hope that clarifies a few things:

 * Firefox 3 implementation for semantic data parsers and UIs are just
   around the corner (next month or two).
 * People tend to use the default browser behavior when available, so
   it's important to get a good UI for semantic data from day one.

-- manu

Received on Friday, 7 September 2007 21:07:54 UTC