Web 3.0 :The Other Semantic Web

As a consequence, many researchers take a very different approach to the Semantic Web. Rather than calling for an overhaul of Web formats, which would involve hundreds of thousands of independent sites, they're building agents that can better understand Web pages as they exist today. They're not making the pages easier to read, they're making the software agents smarter.


Web 3.0 : An Introduction

Web 3.0: Tim, Lucy, and The Semantic Web

Web 3.0 :The Other Semantic Web

Web 3.0 :Semantics and Search

Web 3.0 : A Web Beyond Words

Web 3.0 : Tomorrow's Web, Today

Web 3.0 : An Idiot's Guide to Web 3.0

Web 3.0 : Questions of Semantics

Web 3.0 : Look, Ma, No Keywords!

Web 3.0: Versions 4, 5, 6...

As a consequence, many researchers take a very different approach to the Semantic Web. Rather than calling for an overhaul of Web formats, which would involve hundreds of thousands of independent sites, they're building agents that can better understand Web pages as they exist today. They're not making the pages easier to read, they're making the software agents smarter.

One early example is the BlueOrganizer from AdaptiveBlue (www.adaptiveblue.com). In certain situations, when you visit a Web page, this browser plug-in can understand what the page is about, automatically retrieving related information from other sites and services. If you visit a movie blog, for instance, and read about a particular film, it immediately links to sites where you can buy or rent that film. "It's what you might call a top-down approach," says Alex Iskold, the company's CEO. "Web pages already contain semantic data. We can understand them, so why shouldn't computers? Why not build a technology that can parse and process existing services and databases?"

Of course, that's easier said than done. Countless companies offer tools similar to BlueOrganizer—including Claria's PersonalWeb—but these aren't that different from the old Amazon.com "recommendation engine," which suggests new products based on your surfing and buying habits. We're a long way from agents that can think on their own. In the near term, the Semantic Web may require the sort of metadata Berners-Lee proposes. "Automated agents are worth striving for," says Pattie Maes, an MIT Media Lab veteran who founded the Lab's Software Agents Group. "But it's hard to say what's better—tags built into Web pages or tags that are, in a sense, inferred by machines."