Introducing schema.org: A Collaboration on Structured Data

Today we’re announcing schema.org, a new initiative from Yahoo!, Bing, and Google, to create and support a common set of schemas for structured data markup on web pages. With schema.org, webmasters and developers can learn about structured data and improve how their sites appear in search results on Bing, Google, and Yahoo!. Information and tips are available on schema.org, a one-stop resource for webmasters looking to add markup to make their pages better understood by search engines.

In 2008, Yahoo! showed its support of structured data through the launch of the SearchMonkey program. We won plaudits and awards for our work but most importantly Yahoo! helped boost an increase in markup on the web which in turn helped improve the search experience by resolving questions quickly through enhanced result displays. SearchMonkey also helped Yahoo! kick start various initiatives to provide a better search experience, including automatic rich results and richer object displays on Yahoo! Search.

We continue our support of the open web and in an effort to delight our users with richer and more useful user experiences we’ve come together with Bing and Google to pool our experiences and to support a common set of schemas, just as search engines came together to support sitemaps.

Today’s announcement offers tremendous opportunity for growth. In addition to consolidating the schemas for the vocabularies we already support, there are schemas for more than a hundred newly created categories including movies, music, organizations, TV shows, products, places and more. We will continue to expand these categories by listening to feedback from the community and will continue publishing new schemas on a regular basis. Don’t worry if your site has already added RDFa or microformats currently supported by our Enhanced Displays program, that site will still appear with an Enhanced Display on Yahoo! – no changes required.

As webmasters add this markup to their sites, search engines can develop richer search experiences. Yahoo! is leading the way in this space and recently announced alignment between search and our Web of Objects program to deliver engaging answers through Search Direct. We look forward to seeing structured markup continue to grow on the web, power richer search results, and enable you to find answers faster to even more complex queries.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. We welcome your feedback.

Shashi Seth, SVP of Yahoo! Search & Marketplace Team