The MyBlogLog Blog The source for all things MyBlogLog.

MyBlogLog hCard & vCard: More Microformats, More Portable Data

Those of you that follow MyBlogLog on Twitter got an early preview of a new feature the MyBlogLog team rolled out today.  (To badly paraphrase Ferris Bueller, "If you aren't on Twitter, I highly recommend setting an account up.  It is so choice.")

So, what's new?  MyBlogLog has added the ability to quickly add your contacts and other MyBlogLog members to your address book.  Simply click the new hCard or vCard icon that is displayed on each member's profile page (see screen shot at right) to get started.

So, why two icons?  Today, most users will likely want a standard vCard -- the white icon on the left.  This should automatically open your default address book application (Outlook, Thunderbird, Address Book on Mac, etc.) and prompt you to add the new contact.

Many advanced users have setup custom processing in their browser for hCards and will prefer to use that format -- linked by the green icon on the right.

What's more, hCard is a microformat.  Like the other microformats we have added to MyBlogLog recently -- XFN and Rel=me -- hCard makes it easier for members to use their MyBlogLog information at other services around the internet.  As the hCard wiki entry says, "hCard enables applications to retrieve information directly from web pages without having to reference a separate file."

But wait, their more...  The MyBlogLog team has incorporated member's privacy settings directly into the hCards/vCards.  If a member chooses to share their email address and phone number only with their contacts, the information will only be included on the hCard/vCard when clicked on by their contacts.  Everyone else (and other services online) will only receive the public information the member has shared.

Finally, the team wants to thank Chris Messina for his continued help in getting MyBlogLog microformatized (new word?) and even more open.  You rock!

MyBlogLog’s Quiet Rollout of MicroID

Last week we rolled out support for MicroID. I want to thank Micah Laaker for prodding us to get there and will also crib from his blog post which explains why this addition is significant.

. . . it boils down to a decentralized and lightweight trust system that
would allow the software behind any site at which I’m recognized to
provide relevant content/recommendations. That, and I wouldn’t need to
spend any time sharing all my other account usernames with a site I’m
not even sure I want to continue using.

If you use a service such as claimID, you can now verify your ownership of your MyBlogLog profile page.

MyBlogLog Brings the FOAF… and Kent Brewster’s It Up

One of the great things about having an open platform which developers can play around with is that your community hits you up with cool visualizations that open your eyes to what's possible.

Kent Brewster has done just that (again!!!) with Foafster. Kent egged us on to encode all MyBlogLog profile pages with FOAF (Friend of a Friend) data to complement the recent XFN markup addition. He's now used that to build an interactive browser.

In the screenshot above you see all of Kent's MyBlogLog contacts overlayed on top of an enlarged version of his avatar. In the upper left are links to all his services, down below is a history of all the faces I've clicked on before coming to Kent's page. Clicking on any face re-draws the screen with that new user's service links and their MyBlogLog contacts.

And so on, and so on.

MyBlogLog is now officially FOAF'd.  Members' FOAF files are at /foaf after their member name.  (e.g. http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/iankennedy/foaf)

Vroom! Vroom!

A little Ajax'y goodness comes to your profiles which speeds things up considerably. A couple of things to notice:

1. Pages update dynamically, as soon as new content becomes available. If you've added lots of tags to about your interests on your profile, then the New with My World area will be a stream of updates with content that matches those tags and your interests. Adding Topics is another way to add tags. Go to the Topic page for Web 2.0 for example and you can click the "Add to my Topics" link and add that to your profile.

2. Arrow keys are supported. If you're using either Firefox or Internet Explorer, you can toggle through the New with Me, New with My Neighborhood, and New with My World areas using your keyboard's arrow keys.

Check it out! Let us know what you think!