Semantic Web takes big step forward

InfoWorld - The Semantic Web got a critical boost Tuesday from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

A term that has been tossed around for years, the Semantic Web is envisioned as a Web extension to make it easier to find and group information. The W3C gave that concept a push forward when it announced publication of SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle") query technology, a Semantic Web component designed to enable people to focus on what they want to know rather than on the database technology or data format used to store data.

The potential of the Semantic Web cannot be underestimated. By scanning the Web on behalf of users, even Google's ad-based business model could be impacted, an analyst said.

SPARQL queries express high-level goals and are easier to extend to unanticipated data sources. The technology overcomes limitations of local searches and single formats, according to the W3C.

"[SPARQL is] the query language and protocol for the Semantic Web," said Lee Feigenbaum, chair of the W3C's Resource Description Framework (RDF) Data Access Working Group, which is responsible for SPARQL.

Already available in 14 known implementations, SPARQL is designed to be used at the scale of the Web to support queries over distributed data sources independent of format. It also can be used for mashing up Web 2.0 data.

The Semantic Web, the W3C said, is intended to enable sharing, merging and reusing of data globally. "The basic idea of the Semantic Web is take the idea of the Web, which is effectively a linked set of documents around the world, and apply it to data," Feigenbaum said.

"One way to think about the Semantic Web is the Web as one big database," said W3C spokesman Ian Jacobs. A database, he said, enables querying and manipulation of data. More database-like Web sites are emerging, he said.

Comparing the Semantic Web to search sites such as Google, Jacobs noted that Google allows for searching through document text, essentially. The Semantic Web, meanwhile, allows for automation and combining of data, he said.

While the Semantic Web concept has been talked about for several years, Feigenbaum said momentum is building. He cited DBpedia, which extracts structured information from Wikipedia, as an example of a Web site based on the Semantic Web.

With the Semantic Web's ability to home in on just the information a user needs, companies like Google that rely on a Web search advertising model may have to reconsider their plans, said analyst Jonas Lamis, executive director of SciVestor Corp., an Austin-based research and advisory firm that focuses on emerging technology.

"They may need to rethink their business model, because if I have an agent that acts on my behalf and finds things that are interesting for me, it's not necessarily going to be reading Google ads to do that," Lamis said.