For me, the beauty of the thing is that it is pure and simple XHTML. We’re back where we started fifteen years ago, marking up content in a meaningful and pure way. Don’t underestimate the power because there is no complex new technology to learn. This is about concepts of the web.

The trick…. is to make sure that each limited mechanical part of the Web, each application, is within itself composed of simple parts that will never get too powerful.
—Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving The Web

By the way – none of this is critical of you or the obvious benefits of Microformats – they are just my comments:

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“John: I think you might have hit the nail on the head already in your comments (above):

I was a little surprised then to learn it was “just” XHTML after all.

……#I”m looking around me as if to say, “Hey, has anyone else but you and me realised this?” #

Seriously – I think “Microformats” is getting hyped-up by some people trying to make it more “techy” than it actually is and claiming that “variations” of xhtml/xml are somehow “NEW” formats all of their own….hmm, I”m rather cynical of this. I”m not disputing the great qualities of the Microformats and there is obvioulsy a lot of potential for their uptake to increase…but…this is nothing as profound as the arrival of CSS3, the phenomenon of Blogging, or even the possible spec of xhtml 2+. Nice as they are – Microformats are giving me the impression of the Web”s idea of “Post It” notes…not really ground-breaking is it?

Andy: I”ve just arrived at this Blog from Eric”s and read that exact article…and then I looked at the Microformats site…and I”m not seeing the greatness there (nice site in it”s own rights – oh yes). I think Eric is perhaps getting too excited about something because it”s “NEW” and because the xhtml is already familiar too him on a sub-concious level…so he feels an attachment to it (err, so to speak).”

Matt