The Semantic Web

Humans are capable of using the Internet to carry out tasks such as finding restaurants in Chicago, booking a hotel room, or searching for the cheapest HDTV and buying it. However, a computer alone cannot accomplish the same tasks without human direction because web pages are designed to be read by people, not machines. Semantics is the branch of linguistics concerned with meaning. The semantic web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which information on the Internet can not only be read by humans, but is also understandable by computers or software agents, thus permitting them to find, share, and combine information on the Web. The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, thus better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation. To achieve the Semantic Web, the information contained on the Internet will need to be converted into data that a machine can read and evaluate on its own (resource description framework, RDF is the leading standard). Startup companies such as Radar Networks are pioneering the next phase of the Web, sometimes referred to as Web 3.0.

The advent of online shopping for products and services has greatly increased price transparency. Car shoppers, for example, can receive quotes from several dealers within a specified geographical area and then further research the spread between what the dealer paid and the quote to determine if the markup is appropriate or there is room for further negotiation. However, this all requires your time and effort to research the various dealers and obtain the quotes. Under the Semantic Web, this work would be done for you. With ease of use would come greater user adoption, ultimately resulting in even greater price transparency. Now, the price of a product or service listed on the Web is generally considered to be a piece of factual information. If greater price transparency occurs, then price becomes more of a commodity and less of a differentiator between suppliers. If this happens, consumers will rely more on additional factors (besides price) to base their buying decisions. Other factors will be available, such as the supplier's record of customer satisfaction. But, how accurate or believable will these other pieces of information be? Would a greater reliance on this data drive initiatives to validate and certify the accuracy of all Web-based qualitative data? Perhaps this could spawn a whole new industry. Maybe someday there will be the Web equivalent of Underwriters Laboratories that instead of certifying product safety would certify data accuracy.