correlate

The ‘semantic web‘ is a term that is getting more and more air time. And when it is mentioned in the same sentences with terms such as Web 3.0 or the third generation of the web, you need to pay attention. While I think Web 2.0 still has a lot left in the tank and at the same time, is a term that has been thrown around quite for all things “advanced” on the web, the entire premise of the next incarnation of the web is an intriguing one.

So what is it? Scoble takes a shot at giving a quick 101-style explanation in his post a few days ago. While a lot more advanced that current day web, the semantic web really does hold a lot of the promise for unlocking the power of the web, well beyond the value and find ability at the web page level we see today, particularly around search. If you think of web pages as molecules, the semantic web is the world of atoms…each data element or entity has value in and onto itself, and each entity’s relationship with other elements creates even greater value. I expect to have a number of posts on this topic moving forward.

In the meantime, there is some great write-ups and research on the topic, and it is clear more and more commercial examples will be begin to show themselves. Google has a short reading list of 19,800,000 links to enjoy on the topic. Lifeboat.com has some interesting pages on the topic including MINDING THE PLANET: THE MEANING AND FUTURE OF THE SEMANTIC WEB and THE THIRD GENERATION WEB IS COMING.