One benefit of “structured blogging” is that it allows you to tailor the look of your post based on the content. So a post reviewing a movie looks different than a post describing an item you are selling. Structured Blogging also ensures that the data included in your post is structured properly, allowing non-humans to quickly parse the data and understand what everything is.

The best resources for getting a better understanding of all of this is the newly redesigned StructuredBlogging.com and the Microformats site.

If you want to get involved as a blogger, the best way to start is to download a plugin to whatever blogging platform you are using. There are links and instructions in the sidebar of the main StructuredBlogging site.

Disclosure: I have a bunch of friends working on this and I want to support their efforts. They are doing this partly or in some cases entirely without compensation and for the good of the web. A company I co-founded, edgeio, also fully supports this initiative.