As a vcard file – the digital equivalent of a business card – the  hcard format is supported in most devices and contact managers, such as Blackberry and eMail software. It makes sense to allow a site visitor to download the address information for a company into their contact manager software. To do so:

1. Create an entry for the company in any application that supports the vCard format (Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, etc).
2. Export the entry as a .vcf file (for example, send an eMail with the contact information included as an attachment).
3. Upload the .vcf file to your website.
4. Create a link to the file from a webpage, as you would link any other file.

Depending on your server setup and the software that the site visitor uses, you may find that the browser tries to display the file rather than downloading it. To forestall this, write the following line in your site’s .htaccess file: AddType text/x-vcard .vcf

I’ve completed a vcard with some personal contact information and linked to it so you can see the result for yourself.

Photograph by Heartlover1717, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license

Enjoy this piece? I invite you to follow me at twitter.com/dudleystorey to learn more.