This is the year of the Semantic Web. Whatever the sceptics may say, statistics show that Semantic Web technology is on the up. In 2012, Web Data Commons (webdatacommons.org) an initiative supported by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), reported a 25% increase in the amount of websites and web pages using RDFa and Microdata. Furthermore, they claim that it is now possible to extract over a billion facts from the common crawl for as little as 600 Euros, making Semantic Web technology less of a pipe dream and more of a must-have for any digital agency wanting to go places.
To put Semantic Web into context, too often marketers are faced with the challenge that the product on its own just isn't that interesting. Take for example bottled water – in its raw form it’s an expensive alternative to tap water - it’s neither fun, interesting or covetable. But as soon as it's put into some kind of context and helps us to form a relationship, take Evian for example and its cute dancing babies, the value proposition quickly becomes more apparent.
However, as many know all too well, the issue isn't necessarily identifying those important relationships but actually sourcing them. It's not because the data doesn't exist - across the internet there are hundreds of millions of resources, databases and information systems that hold these vital nuggets of data. The real problem is the links that tie one snippet of information in one database, with another piece of information in a different database just don't exist. As a result, implementation costs can quickly spiral, with vast swathes of money being spent text mining and natural language processing in an attempt to make that vital connection. Ultimately, what might have been a very reasonable and sound idea soon becomes relegated to the catch all of blue sky thinking.
Despite this, there have been tremors of Semantic Web adopters rippling across the industry. Rumours of Google’s new Knowledge Graph, powered by technology from its recent Metabase acquisition, have now become a reality. The new search has been undergoing beta testing in the US, confirming Google’s realisation that the keyword alone is not enough. Facebook, an early adopter of Semantic Web technology, has been making leaps and bounds in the same vein. The number of vocabularies and ontologies powering its open graph has more than quadrupled over the past three years with customers and users now being given more options than just to 'like' something.
On the other side of the fence, it's not only commercial entities that have woken up to the fact that Semantic Web technology presents real and tangible economic benefits. At a time when budgets have been slashed and cost efficiency savings are paramount, public and not-for-profit bodies have been making unprecedented investment in the Semantic Web in an effort to provide a much-needed boost to the economy. The BBC announced at its March 2012 Academy, that 25% of their Olympic platform budget was invested in Semantic Web technology, a notable relative increase from the 2010 World Cup platform.
It’s not at all clear what the future holds for the Semantic Web but whatever diffidence remains, in the light of recent events, it is certain that even the most ardent opponents will be feeling slightly uneasy at the thought of the vision finally becoming a reality.
By Will Greenly, Head of Technology at Haygarth.
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