Semantic web in simple examples
This Forbes article describes the semantic web in simple terms, starting by mentioning how rudimentary our search technology is:
We’ve become a society of information managers, navigating huge amounts of data with ease and expertly tracking down obscure facts and figures.
But as far as we’ve come, all we’ve really done is become good at finding needles in haystacks.
Semantic web means smarter search, but that is just the start:
[S]emantic technology also holds great promise for all kinds of businesses. […] With data growth rates averaging between 20% and 30% annually, many businesses are drowning under the weight of their own files […] “We want to get the human out of the loop for obvious reasons–they cost money, and they make errors.”
So machines can handle a lot of the work in a rapid-growth area.
Google’s comparison shopper Froogle is given as an example of the first step to the semantic web: agreed-upon “tags” help us all find a price, for example, regardless of what language or what terms the web site uses. But it doesn’t do the harder things: relating terms and building context.
(via wired)