Semantics and the Web: The Bacon Has Been Delivered

November 12, 2015

I read and viewed “What Happened to the Semantic Web.” For one thing, the search engine optimization has snagged the idea in order to build interest in search result rankings. The other thing I know if that most people are blissfully unaware of what semantics are supposed to be and how semantics impacts their lives. Many folks are thrilled when their mobile phone points them to a pizza joint or out of an unfamiliar part of town.

The write up explains that for the last 15 years there has been quite a bit of the old rah rah for semantics on the Web. Well, the semantics are there. The big boys like Google and Microsoft are making this happen. If you are interested in triples, POST, and RDF, you can work through the acronyms and get to the main points of the article.

The bulk of the write up is a series of comparative screen shots. I looked at these and tried to replicate a couple of them. I was not able to derive the same level of thrillness which the article expresses. Your mileage may vary.

Here’s the passage I highlighted in a definitely pale shade of green:

As you can see, there is no question that the Web already has a population of HTML documents that include semantically-enriched islands of structured data. This new generation of documents creates a new Web dimension in which links are no longer seen solely as document addresses, but can function as unambiguous names for anything, while also enabling the construction of controlled natural language sentences for encoding and decoding information [data in context] — comprehensible by both humans and machines (bots). The fundamental goal of the Semantic Web Project has already been achieved. Like the initial introduction of the Web, there wasn’t an official release date — it just happened!

I surmise this is the semantic heaven described by Ramanathan Guha and his series of inventions, now almost a decade old. What’s left out is a small point: The semantic technology allows Google and some other folks to create a very interesting suite of databases. Good or bad? I will leave it to you to revel in this semantic fait accompli.

Stephen E Arnold, November 12, 2015

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Search, Semantic

Comments

Comments are closed.

Search the site
Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive

Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.