hCard

hCard is a microformat for publishing the contact details (which might be no more than the name) of people, companies, organizations, and places, in HTML, Atom, RSS, or arbitrary XML.^[1] The hCard microformat does this using a 1:1 representation of vCard (RFC 2426) properties and values, identified using HTML classes and rel attributes.

It allows parsing tools (for example other websites, or Firefox's Operator extension) to extract the details, and display them, using some other websites or mapping tools, index or search them, or to load them into an address-book program.

In May 2009, Google announced that they would be parsing the hCard and hReview and hProduct microformats, and using them to populate search-result pages.^[2] In September 2010 Google announced their intention to surface hCard, hReview information in their local search results.^[3] In February 2011, Facebook began using hCard to mark up event venues.^[4]

Example

Consider the HTML:

<ul>
    <li>Joseph Doe</li>
    <li>Joe</li>
    <li>The Example Company</li>
    <li>604-555-1234</li>
    <li><a href="http://example.com/">http://example.com/</a></li>
</ul>

With microformat markup, that becomes:

<ul class="vcard">
    <li class="fn">Joseph Doe</li>
    <li class="nickname">Joe</li>
    <li class="org">The Example Company</li>
    <li class="tel">604-555-1234</li>
    <li><a class="url" href="http://example.com/">http://example.com/</a></li>
</ul>

A profile may optionally be included in the page header:

<link rel="profile" href="http://microformats.org/profile/hcard">

Here the properties fn,^[5] nickname, org (organization), tel (telephone number) and url (web address) have been identified using specific class names; and the whole thing is wrapped in class="vcard" which indicates that the other classes form an hcard, and are not just coincidentally named. If the hCard is for an organization or venue, the fn and org classes are used on the same element, as in <span class="fn org">Wikipedia</span> or <span class="fn org">Wembley Stadium</span>. Other, optional hCard classes also exist.

It is now possible for software, for example browser plug-ins, to extract the information, and transfer it to other applications, such as an address book.

Geo and adr

The Geo microformat is a part of the hCard specification, and is often used to include the coordinates of a location within an hCard.

The adr part of hCard can also be used as a stand-alone microformat.

Live example

Here are the Wikimedia Foundation's contact details as of February 2023, as a live hCard:

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

1 Montgomery Street, Suite 1600

San Francisco, CA 94104

USA

Phone: +1-415-839-6885

Email: info@wikimedia.org

Fax: +1-415-882-0495

The mark-up (wrapped for clarity) used is:

<div class="vcard">
    <div class="fn org">Wikimedia Foundation Inc.</div>
    <div class="adr">
        <div class="street-address">1 Montgomery Street, Suite 1600</div>
        <div> <span class="locality">San Francisco</span>, <abbr class="region" title="California">CA</abbr> <span class="postal-code">94104</span></div>
        <div class="country-name">USA</div>
    </div>
    <div>Phone: <span class="tel">+1-415-839-6885</span></div>
    <div>Email: <span class="email">info@wikimedia.org</span></div>
    <div class="tel">
        <span class="type">Fax</span>:
        <span class="value">+1-415-882-0495</span>
    </div>
</div>

In this example, the fn and org properties are combined on one element, indicating that this is the hCard for an organization, not a person.

Other attributes

Other commonly used hCard attributes include

bday – a person's birth date
email
honorific-prefix
honorific-suffix
label – for non-granular addresses
logo
nickname
note – free text
photo
post-office-box

References

^ Sikos, Leslie (2011). Web Standards: Mastering HTML5, CSS3, and XML. Apress. ISBN 978-1430240419. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
^ Goel, Kavi; Guha, Ramanathan V.; Hansson, Othar (2009-05-12). "Introducing Rich Snippets". Google Webmaster Central Blog. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
^ Blumenthal, Mike (2010-09-22). "Google Announces Full Support for Microformats in Local". Understanding Google Maps. Retrieved 2010-09-30.
^ Protalinski, Emil (2011-02-18). "Facebook adds hCalendar and hCard microformats to Events". ZDNet. Archived from the original on February 19, 2011. Retrieved 24 March 2011.
^ no friendly name defined in the specification http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard#Property_List, but one might think of it as "full name", "formal name", "formatted name", or "family name"