business.txt

by @fesja

Transcript

1. Business.txt Standard proposal @fesja August 31st
2. Problem to solve Local businesses have to update their information on dozens of websites Websites have outdated information Users find info that it’s not correct
3. business.txt A file with all the info of the local business in a standard format Websites will get that file and update their info when something changes Users will read the latest information It’s win-win-win!
4. Example Name:  RJ  Grunts Categories:  American  Restaurant,  Bar Street:  2056  North  Lincoln  Park  W  (at  Dickens  Ave.) Zip:  60614 City:  Chicago State:  Illinois Country:  United  States Coordinates:  41.92012,  -­‐87.63645 Phone:  (1)  773-­‐929-­‐5363 Price  range:  $$ Price  description:  $9.95  burger,  $11.95  salad  and  soup  bar.  You  can  eat  for  $10-­‐20. Open:  Mon-­‐Fri  11.30am-­‐12am,  Sat  10am-­‐12am,  Sun  10am-­‐9pm Short  description:  Great  place  to  have  a  great  burger  and  salad  bar Website:  http://www.rjgruntschicago.com/ Twitter:  RJGruntsChicago Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/rjgrunts Foursquare:  https://foursquare.com/v/rj-­‐grunts/42153000f964a5208c1f1fe3 Google:  https://plus.google.com/108935673850120788149/about?hl=en Yelp:  http://www.yelp.com/biz/rj-­‐grunts-­‐chicago TouristEye:  http://www.touristeye.com/RJ-­‐Grunts-­‐Chicago-­‐p-­‐2127
5. Are people interested? 259 points and 109 comments in Hacker News 2nd most starred repository in Github on August 27th Discussion on the W3C newsletter Hundreds of discussions with SEOs
6. Is it the best solution? Why not schema? Why not vCard/hCard? Why is it an external file? Is it safe against malicious behavior?
7. Does Google support it? 1. A Google employee writes a personal thought 2. A SEO writes a post about that opinion: “Googler: Don't Use business.txt Files” 3. Someone writes in Twitter: “Google Says Don't Use Business.TXT file” 4. Be careful with what you read!
8. Next steps Agree on the format Build the first plugins (Wordpress) Market the idea to local businesses devs Contact with websites to implement it
9. Follow business.txt On Github: github.com/fesja/businesstxt Group: groups.google.com/forum/#! forum/businesstxt Feedback? Questions?