Schema and Rich Snippets What's the difference?

[AL123al]

Sorry if this is a daft question but... what is the difference between Rich snippets and Schema markup? Are they one and the same? They seem to be used interchaneably and I'm confused. If someone could give a brief sentence or two about the differences between them that would be great.

Thanks

[AL123al]

Thanks for all your answers.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Rich snippets are what come from HTML markup from the likes of Schema. And yes, there are a number of Wordpress plugins that will allow you to create markup very easily. This will then (hopefully) be used by Google to create rich snippets.

It is confusing at first

-Andy

[OlegKorneitchouk]

Schema microdata is a type markup that results in rich snippets (bonus details in SERPs).

Other rich snippet markups include RDFa and Microformats

[AL123al]

Hi Andy,

Thank you for taking the time to respond. So basically Rich Snippets are based on Schema markup? - and therefore really the same thing?

In Wordpress there appears to be a Rich Snippet plugin? Would this be used to schema markup various items in a website?

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Rich Snippets Rich snippets—detailed information intended to help users with specific queries. For example, the snippet for a restaurant might show the average review and price range; the snippet for a recipe page might show the total preparation time, a photo, and the recipe’s review rating; and the snippet for a music album could list songs along with a link to play each song.
From this page: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/99170?hl=en

Schema HTML tags, that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers.
From this page: http://schema.org/

Rich Snippets are Google's own wording for the snippet of information that can be given to them when using a markup from the likes of Schema.org (Microdata).

I hope that explains this a little?

-Andy