Hi Folks,
In my original post I posed this
question:
Suppose that you are in charge of a Web
(you control the funding of all the Web sites). Would you issue this
mandate to all the Web site developers: “All information on the
visible Web must be in XML”?
If you would issue this mandate, why?
That is, would it be preferable to have a
visible Web where web sites
serve up documents such as this:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href=""grocery.xsl"?>
<grocery-list>
<fruit>Orange</fruit>
<meat>Chicken</meat>
<vegetable>Corn</vegetable>
</grocery-list>
Or, would it be preferable to have a visible Web where web sites serve up documents such
as this:
<HTML>
<body>
<ul>
<li>Orange</li>
<li>Chicken</li>
<li>Corn</li>
</ul>
</body>
</HTML>
I think that this is a particularly
important question, given recent discussions.
Here is my initial stab at the pros and
cons.
An XML/XSLT Based Visible Web
Advantages
The burden of converting XML data into HTML
is offloaded to the clients. Thus, distributed processing is enhanced.
Customized search engines could be
created for specific XML vocabularies. Such customized search engines
could perform more targeted search, e.g.,
a “grocery-list aware search engine” would understand this
vocabulary - <grocery-list>, <fruit>, <meat>, <vegetable>
and
would be able to perform targeted searches on grocery lists.
Disadvantages
This markup - <grocery-list>,
<fruit>, <meat>, <vegetable> has no meaning (semantics) to conventional
applications (browsers, PDAs, cellphones, etc)
on the visible Web. Conventional
search engines can make no sense of the markup. Thus, the ability of
conventional search engines to index the Web is reduced. The net result
is your ability to find things is reduced.
An (X)HTML Based Visible Web
Advantages
This markup - <ul>, <li>
has definite,
universally understood meaning (semantics) to a large percentage of
applications (browsers, PDAs, cellphones, etc)
on the visible Web.
Search engines can make sense of the markup. Thus, the ability of search engines
to index the Web is enhanced. The net result is your ability to find
things is heightened.
Disadvantages
The burden of converting XML data into HTML
is placed on the server. Thus, distributed processing is reduced.
What do you think - should the visible Web become more XML/XSLT based?
/Roger
