schema.org

🌋📠

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schema.org is a set of vocabularies created by a group at Google, in some cases based on existing vocabularies like microformats hCard, and in others re-inventing vocabularies instead of re-using specs like Atom or RSS, then co-launched in 2011 with fellow search-engine Microsoft Bing, and their search licensee Yahoo, still run by them and additional search engine Yandex.

Criticism

Overdesigned nonsense vocabularies

Due to its hierarchical class structure and attempt to be too many things to too many requests (not actual use-cases) Schema.org contains a number of very strange and useless vocabulary properties.

One that is often brought up as an example of this is the fact that a schema.org "Volcano" object has a "faxNumber" property, which is sufficiently obviously nonsensical that it serves as a good illustration of the methodological flaws in Schema.org’s design, and is the reason for the emojicon 🌋📠 at the top of the page.

E.g.:

• 2013-08-09 https://twitter.com/haxor/status/365962214076723200

  .@SeanTAllen @steveklabnik Those verbs all seem like SPACEJUMP to me. As ridiculous as Volcanoes having a fax machine http://schema.org/Volcano

• 2014-06-25 Kevin Marks gave a talk at Google I/O which gave the volcano fax number example as a criticism of Schema-org. Commentary:
  • 2014-06-25 Tantek Çelik: https://chat.indieweb.org/2014-06-25/1403740212000000

    haha object orientation bad - because then you get Volcano with a fax number

  • 2014-06-25 https://twitter.com/jewelia/status/481963754511282176

    @kevinmarks I loved your talk. Volcano with a fax number was esp priceless, but overall you made so many great points

• 2014-09-29 https://chat.indieweb.org/2014-09-29/1412016923789000

  like you have no idea if your Volcano will show up with a fax machine in its rich snippet

• 2017-04-03 https://twitter.com/PeterMindenhall/status/848885665643323392

  #Whentechnologythinkstoohard "So all I need now is the fax number for your Volcano please" http://schema.org/Volcano #Sematic #SEO

• 2017-05-22 https://twitter.com/kevinmarks/status/866690285056741377

  All vocab use is a social understanding. Volcanoes don't really have fax numbers, whatever the vocab says.

• 2019-10-30 https://twitter.com/PeterMindenhall/status/1189577484079128577

  Great to know you can mark up a volcano fax number

See Also

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema.org