Google have recently introduced a new “Rich Snippets” feature that allows you greater interactivity with the way your website results appear in their search results.

Using one of 3 formats (microdata, microformats, or RDFa) you can add “meta data” about your site which Google will then pick up on and then format your results appropriately.

They have Rich Snippets available for different scenarios, including for people and reviews. The latter, as you can imagine, I was interested in.

Google have some good documentation on Rich Snippets and, in particular, review snippets. I decided to use microformats as my format of choice, and simply added the appropriate code into my theme. Hidden from the viewer, my product review data is now made available to Google – product name, rating, reviewer name, etc.

Once done, you can test the results using a supplied testing tool.

It’s so easy, I implemented the review changes and even provided “people” information from my “About” page during my lunchtime.

I’ve made changes to two of my WordPress plugins today…

Simple Draft List

Yes, I know I only changed this yesterday, but I’ve now made an improvement to the date ordering (otherwise scheduled posts would always appear at the top of the list, as they have a future date). Now it’s based on the last modification date, meaning that changing a draft will move it back to the top again.

YouTube Embed

I’ve added a  transparency option so that videos won’t cover up layers on your site. The original problem would only have affected some people, but it’s a worthwhile change (which I haven’t made switchable, but can do if there is a need to do so).

Thanks very much to Daniel at optincrusher for finding it, reporting it and even checking over my changes!

My WordPress plugin, Simple Draft List, has been updated.

Until now it’s been of use to display draft posts on your site. However, I’ve now added the feature to also include scheduled posts that have not yet been published. By default this feature is switched on but can be turned off via a new parameter.

As usual, all details can be found on the Simple Draft List page.