Semantic Web

Powerset brings the Semantic Web to Wikipedia

Amid speculation that Microsoft is looking to make an acquisition, Powerset launched a public beta of its Wikipedia search engine. It brings a new, rich semantic dimension via natural language query processing to Wikipedia that greatly improves the search and reading experience.

The company calls it a first step in changing the way users search and consume Web content. "It's a complete shift. You see this and you want to experience all content in this way," Barney Pell, co-founder and CTO of Powerset, told me. "And, as an introduction, it will drive huge investment in semantic … Read more

On the road to the Semantic Web

The Semantic Web has been just around the corner for a few years. It turns out that bringing a semantic layer of metadata to the Internet is like climbing a mountain in flip-flops.

Tuesday night, Semantic Web mountain climbers Powerset, Radar Networks, and Metaweb participated in a salon at Powerset's San Francisco office, where I talked with them about their product plans.

Powerset gives wings to Wikipedia I got a preview of Powerset's search engine, which is due to go into beta in the coming weeks, according to co-founder and CTO Barney Pell and as reported by TechCrunch. … Read more

Web 2.5: The emergence of platforms-as-a-service

On the road to the elusive Web 3.0 (something to do with semantics, meaning, and context rather than just data, links, and AJAX), core infrastructure is beginning to move from the edge to a center inhabited by companies such as Amazon, Salesforce.com, Joyent, and now Google with its new App Engine.

Call it Web 2.5, where the platform-as-a-service providers allow developers to create Web applications via the cloud and for users to consume them on any Web-connected device, anytime and anywhere. It eliminates what Amazon's Jeff Bezos describes as the "muck," the undifferentiated heavy … Read more

Web 3.0 belongs to those who control personal profile infrastructure

Dave McClure is becoming the Web version of a streetwise ghetto talker. In his latest post, Dave makes some good points, amid the street talk, in his attempt to define Web 3.0 and identify the winners in the race to colonize the Web.

In his day job, Dave is an investor and adviser to Web start-ups, and the more mild-mannered conference chair for Graphing Social Patterns, and a co-chair of the Web 2.0 Expo, which takes place April 22 through 25 in San Francisco.

I agree with Dave that the entities managing personal profile infrastructure, such as user … Read more

Podcast: AOL gets social with Bebo, Microhoo talks and Semantic Web progress

This week on the EIC Squared podcast Larry Dignan and I discuss the merits of AOL's $850 million Bebo acquisition and the status of Microsoft's pursuit of Yahoo. Apparently the Microsoft and Yahoo are holding informal talks. The general consensus among industry watchers is that Yahoo should take the money and run, especially if its first quarter earnings are going to disappoint Wall Street. Larry explains the role IT played in helping to turn Eliot Spitzer into an ex-governor of New York, and I outline the latest developments in the Semantic Web, including Yahoo's efforts in this … Read more

Tim Berners-Lee: Google could be superseded by the Semantic Web

The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, isn't satisfied living on his past laurels. At every opportunity he talks up the Semantic Web, which he calls the "Web of the future."

In a recent article in the Times Online, he said that what Google has done so far pales in comparison with what the Semantic Web will bring. Social -networking leaders Facebook and MySpace will eventually be trumped by networks that connect all types of things, not just people, he said. To be clear, he wasn't saying that Google is doomed.

In the … Read more