Does anyone know why Google recommends Microdata over Microformats and RDFa?

Question

I knew a lot about Microdata, Microformats, and RDFa markup methods. Google recommends Microdata over the other two premiums, and I want to know why. Reading a ton of documents and studying these allowances leaves me more ignorant than before I started reading. Does anyone know why Google recommends this type? Is this something with HTML5?

Here is a link to the site where I received information from Google.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I think this is simply because schema.org is Google’s own initiative (they created it together with Microsoft and Yahoo). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema.org .

Answer 2

Due to the many (syntactic) errors found in using RFDa. One of Schema.org's leaders talks about the reason they chose microdata:

(...) the error rate (i.e. webmasters marking their pages before say, X, when Y was really said) was about 3 times [with RFDa, red.], because it was for other formats (including microformats, sitemaps, Google shopping channels, etc.). (...) More than 40% of the mistakes had to be made with the confusion between rel and property.

(...) We really do not want to understand if there is a difference between rel and property on a theoretical level. We also understand that there are some that lead RDFa authors to this distinction. But the bottom line remains that until the error rate in using RDFa drops sharply, this is not a viable option for us. (...)

A source

Answer 3

Here is another perspective: http://manu.sporny.org/2012/microdata-cr/
I wonder how we are all used to hating Microsoft for perverting standards. Guess that Google is now stepping into its shoes.