Do we need a new standard for the Internet?

I post descriptions and links for online news articles to Linked In and to Zunia. The postings include a title and a description of the article. When one posts an article to Linked In, one inputs the URL and the site itself seeks to recognize that title and tends to try to utilize the first characters of the story as the description; you are allowed to edit. Zunia expects the user to enter all the information personally.

Even the Linked In system often fails, apparently because different online news sources use different formats for the title and description information. It would be nice if there was a standard that most news sources would use. Then portals could make pointing to the news stories easier and more informative.