OntoSearch

As you are aware the Internet continues to change the way we search, purchase and market product and services forcing us to evolve both as customers and as business owners.

 We learn how to leverage the change in our favor as consumers, and as business people we investigate how best to monetize it. Regardless of which side of the commercial equation we’re on, evolution is a survival imperative and failure to adapt is bound to have grave consequences.

 The semantic Web is an evolution in the way the Internet stores, recalls and displays information, and has been continuing to evolve for the last couple years. The semantic web is no longer as speculation about the future of the net, the semantic web is almost here, and something forward thinking business’s should be considering in their marketing strategies.

 What exactly the Semantic Web

 In order to understand the meaning of the Semantic Web one must first embrace two concepts – totality and accessibility:
Totality – to what extent are things defined online

The Semantic Web is a web of data where everything is defined and linked to anything with which it has an association. In this Web anything conceivable must be represented and relevantly associated.

Accessibility – to what extent is the Web accessible to computers

The Semantic Web is a web of data perfectly accessible by machines. It is a Web that computers are able to interact with, interpret and utilize autonomously – without the need for any human intervention.

 Using the traditional web as a resource for planning requires a fair deal of man-powered research and visiting quite a few disparate web services in order develop enough information. When using the semantic web starts at a point where it is a given that all the data relating to you, and all the data relating to your specific search, in essence it is about returning results that are computer optimized to be specific to you

 Understanding the Semantic Web

 Understanding the basic difference between the web-that-is and the web-to-be supplies a few clues as to how this change is happening and why it’s happening now:

 

The democratization of online publishing in the past few years has done a lot to contribute to the Totality of the web and has without doubt been the key to its unprecedented growth. The Web still has a long way to go before it encompasses everything, but it already contains enough data to allow generating limited Semantic Web experiences, especially in “UGC-rich” fields.

 The ascent of APIs as the de-facto method for structuring inter-service communications is creating an ever increasing degree of Accessibility. Every day now greater swaths of the web are made accessible and “understandable” to automated services.

 Tagging, Natural Language Processing and other forms of hi-tech voodoo are all coming of age around now. Their evolution is having an increasingly positive impact on computers’ ability to “understand” the Web.

 The Semantic Web Revolution

Feilds where more has been done to improve the availability of data and its accessibility to computers, are those that will enjoy the boons of the Semantic Web first.

User-generated-content heavy segments like social networking, music and photo sharing sites are some of the first places where it’s already possible to enjoy genuine Semantic Web experiences.

Product sites like Amazon are another good place to experience Semantic Web. Their ability to offer products based on their relevance to users’ needs, intentions and social circles, is another Semantic Web early bird, albeit a rather primitive and limited one

 How To Market Within the Semantic Web

Be aware of the coming change, keep your ears and eyes open for developments and deepen your understanding by reading blog posts .

 Tag the widgets you’re marketing comprehensively so that they are readily identifiable by computers. For example: If you’re selling football jerseys make sure to tag your inventory not only with the relevant team names but also with tags defining your merchandise as “clothing”, “shirt”, “jersey” and/or “fan merchandise”.

 Link the widgets you’re marketing meaningfully to assist in there identification. This is especially true for ambiguous terms. For example by linking this instance of the word “Pink” to the last.fm page dedicated to the singer of the same name I’ve effectively removed all possible ambiguity as to which “Pink” I meant. 

Connect your site to relevant APIs wherever possible. If you deal in real-estate try integrating a map service like Google Maps. Music your thing? Integrate Last.fm or Hypster, etc.