Silvery - 7:04 pm on Jan 11, 2007 (gmt 0)

Yes, there are some standards emerging - I've actually blogged about this very thing a couple of times.

One protocol is the geotag which allows you to pass longitude and latitude in meta elements. Associating the geocodes with a page or with content establishes precise coordinates for pinpointing location. Here's the format:

<META NAME="geo.position" CONTENT="latitude; longitude">
<META NAME="geo.placename" CONTENT="Place Name">
<META NAME="geo.region" CONTENT="Country Subdivision Code">

Example use:

<meta name="geo.position" content="32.787702; -96.797693">
<meta name="geo.placename" content="Dallas, Texas">
<meta name="geo.region" content="US-TX">

Another protocol is the hCard Microformat. This format displays your info in a normalized manner that would be easier for search engines to read off your pages, and unlike the META geotags above, it can be visible to endusers.

Ex:

<strong class="fn org">Example Company, Inc.</strong>
<span class="adr">
<span class="street-address">1000 Main Street</span>
<span class="locality">Springfield</span>,
<span class="region">MO</span>
<span class="postal-code">56087-0000</span>
<span class="country-name">USA</span>
</span>
<span class=�hgeo�h>
<abbr class="latitude" title="37.230000">N 37&deg; 23.0000</abbr>,
<abbr class="longitude" title="93.380000">W 93&deg; 38.0000</abbr>
</span>