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Semantic Web: What Is The Killer App? - ReadWriteWeb

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Saved by 60 people (-17 private), first by anonymouse user on 2008-01-10


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Natual Language Understanding

Since the beginning, the Semantic Web has been associated with Artificial Intelligence. The idea of representing information in structured form so that computers can "understand it" and then solve complex problems was one of the keystones of the Semantic Web vision. The problem is that representing billions of existing web documents as RDF is a rather daunting, if not impossible task. An alternative would be to "teach" computers natural language. If an application could read the page the way we read it and interpret what it says, the annotations would not be necessary.

Highlighted by feasandee

The Semantic Web has been in the making for some time and people think it is nearing maturity. We have written about this trend extensively, with our two most notable posts being an analysis of the challenges of the classic bottom-up approach and the promise of the new top-down one. Regardless of how the Semantic Web will come about, for it to flourish it needs to hit the mainstream. There is no way that consumers will appreciate the elegance and mathematical soundness of RDF and OWL. People don't care about math, they care about utility and even more, about fun. What the Semantic Web needs, then, is a killer app.

Highlighted by joel

Whatever it is, it needs to layer an understanding of semantics on top of a consumer application. The consumer application needs to be so cool and so viral that people will be open to learning that it is powered by semantic technologies.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

Whatever it is, it needs to layer an understanding of semantics on top of a consumer application. The consumer application needs to be so cool and so viral that people will be open to learning that it is powered by semantic technologies. In that case, it will be possible to further market applications as Semantic Web apps. Consumers will understand that if one Semantic Web application has potential, so might others. In math, this is called proof by induction. In marketing this is called creating a market. In any case, it needs to be done.

Highlighted by endurant

Since the beginning, the Semantic Web has been associated with Artificial Intelligence. The idea of representing information in structured form so that computers can "understand it" and then solve complex problems was one of the keystones of the Semantic Web vision

Highlighted by sanilunlu

An alternative would be to "teach" computers natural language.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

Related to natural language understanding, is another idea that is not on the horizon. John Markoff called it "the perfect vacation."

Highlighted by sanilunlu

There is a misunderstanding about the Semantic Web which is floating around, which equates the Semantic Web with ability to solve really hard problems. It is simply not true.

Highlighted by endurant

Finding the "perfect" vacation is not a one shot deal, it is a process, which leverages iteration and memory.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

True, with the Semantic Web the information is structured, but it does not mean that the computer can necessarily solve complex problems. These are two completely different things. Just because you have a map, does not mean that you know the best way to get from point A to point B. Having a map is necessary, but it is not sufficient, you need the algorithm to find the best path.

Highlighted by eseminarwmcl

True, with the Semantic Web the information is structured, but it does not mean that the computer can necessarily solve complex problems. These are two completely different things. Just because you have a map, does not mean that you know the best way to get from point A to point B. Having a map is necessary, but it is not sufficient, you need the algorithm to find the best path.

Highlighted by safetyneal

True, with the Semantic Web the information is structured, but it does not mean that the computer can necessarily solve complex problems.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

So what is realistic and possible today? The first in the list of growing applications are Semantic Knowledge Databases.

Highlighted by endurant

But beyond the execution, there is still another problem. For a semantic knowledge base to be the killer app it needs to ignite imagination and capture people's hearts and minds. This is not likely to happen. We appreciate libraries, we can not live without them, but we take them for granted. Knowledge has been commoditized thanks to Google, Wikipedia, and the blogosphere, and is perceived as abundant and unexciting. For this reason Semantic Databases are not likely to be the killer apps -- but they might become a stepping stone towards one.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

On top of having the pressure to deliver qualitatively better results, Semantic Search companies also have to, at least approximately, solve the problem of natural language understanding, which as we discussed earlier is a very difficult one.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

The understanding of natural language does not seem to give you a noticeable edge in getting better search results

Highlighted by sanilunlu

The statistical algorithm deployed by Google is precise and good enough, which is why it has been the clear leader in web search for the past 8 years.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

Increasingly, we are seeing a new breed of Semantic Applications, which we generalize as shortcuts.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

What is common between all these technologies is that they leverage the simple semantics of the content to deliver additional information.

Highlighted by sanilunlu

This is essentially discovery or reverse search.

Highlighted by sanilunlu