Does anyone know why Google recommends Microdata over Microformats and RDFa?

Question

I have researched a lot about the mark-up formats Microdata, Microformats and RDFa. Google recommend Microdata over the other two mark-ups and I want to know why. Reading a ton of documents and studying these mark-ups leaves me more clueless than before I started reading. Does anyone know why Google recommend this type? Is it something to with HTML5?

Here is a link to the site where I got the information from Google.

Thank you.

Answer 1

I think this is simply because schema.org is Google's own initiative (they created it together with Microsoft and Yahoo). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema.org.

Answer 2

Because of the many (syntax) errors found in RFDa usage. One of the leaders of Schema.org talks about the reason they chose microdata:

(...) the error rate (i.e., webmasters marking up their pages to say X when the really meant to say Y) was about 3 times as much [with RFDa, red.] as it was for other formats (which include microformats, sitemaps, Google shopping feeds, etc.). (...) More than 40% of the errors had to do with the confusion between rel and property.

(...) We really don't want to get into whether there is a distinction between rel and property at a theoretical level. We also understand that there are some corner cases which lead the authors of RDFa to make this distinction. But the bottom line remains that as long as the error rate in RDFa usage does not go down dramatically, it is not a viable option for us. (...)

Source

Answer 3

Here is another perspective: http://manu.sporny.org/2012/microdata-cr/
Interesting how we all used to loath Microsoft for perverting standards. Guess Google is now stepping into their shoes.