title: Can I combine two itemscopes to describe a single item?
body: <p>I would like to add microdata to a page, but the data for an item is broken up into a couple discontinuous parts of the page. If I have two <code>span</code> elements with an <code>itemscope</code> attribute, is it possible to get search engines to merge the two itemscopes and interpret them as a single item?</p>
  
  <p>For example*:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;span itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"&gt;
      Hello, my name is &lt;span itemprop="name"&gt;Glinda&lt;/span&gt;.
  &lt;/span&gt;
  I like to fly around in a giant bubble.
  &lt;span itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"&gt;
      I live in the &lt;span itemprop="location"&gt;Land of Oz&lt;/span&gt;.
  &lt;/span&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there a way to add something like an <code>itemid</code> attribute to tell a web spider that the two Person <code>itemscopes</code> should be consumed as one item, instead of two?</p>
  
  <p>Maybe something like this.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;span itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemid="7f6ba1"&gt;
      Hello, my name is &lt;span itemprop="name"&gt;Glinda&lt;/span&gt;.
  &lt;/span&gt;
  I like to fly around in a giant bubble.
  &lt;span itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemid="7f6ba1"&gt;
      I live in the &lt;span itemprop="location"&gt;Land of Oz&lt;/span&gt;.
  &lt;/span&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>* I understand that in this example I could just use one big span, but I can't do that with the actual page I have to work with.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit:</strong> Perhaps I need a better example. It's a bit contrived, but demonstrates the problem I have. Remember, reorganizing the page is not an option.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;h1&gt;Locations&lt;/h1&gt;
    &lt;ul&gt;
      &lt;li itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"&gt;
        &lt;span itemprop="name"&gt;Bob&lt;/span&gt; lives in &lt;span itemprop="location"&gt;Berkeley&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"&gt;
        &lt;span itemprop="name"&gt;Carol&lt;/span&gt; lives in &lt;span itemprop="location"&gt;Cupertino&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;/ul&gt;
  
  &lt;h1&gt;Jobs&lt;/h1&gt;
    &lt;ul&gt;
      &lt;li itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"&gt;
        &lt;span itemprop="name"&gt;Bob&lt;/span&gt; works at &lt;span itemprop="affiliation"&gt;Borders&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"&gt;
        &lt;span itemprop="name"&gt;Carol&lt;/span&gt; works at &lt;span itemprop="affiliation"&gt;Capitol One&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;ul&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there a way to make this microdata result in two Person items, rather than four?</p>
  
  <p>I want to have Bob, who lives in Berkeley, and works at Borders, and Carol who lives in Cupertino and works at Capitol One.</p>