The Semantic Web has taken significant steps towards reality in recent months, with the powerful triumvirate of Google, Facebook and Twitter moving to integrate elements of semantic technology into their operations.

All of a sudden, a development that for too long appeared to be stalled by the chicken-and-egg problem of how website owners could be induced to tag their metadata looks to be in imminent danger of going seriously mainstream.

Marketers, it seems likely, rather than academics, will lead the charge to the VW campers from here on in. And in all probability, publishers and information providers who aren’t already waxing their boards in preparation for this particular wave of technologic change could risk being left behind as it steadily takes on tsunami proportions and thunders beachwards.

Google, Facebook, Twitter embrace semantic technologies

A recent article in New Scientist (subscription required) described how the giants of search and social media are making moves to actualize the semantic web.

1. Google’s recent acquisition of Metaweb’s Freebase, an open-source repository of structured data – or ‘entity graph’ as the company styles it – containing more than 12 million entities, will potentially enable much smarter searching. Entries in Freebase are tagged in such a way that machines can ‘understand’ what they are about and make meaningful connections between them. At the simplest level, computer searches would, for instance, be able to distinguish between David Mitchell the British Novelist and David Mitchell the British Actor, Comedian and Writer (not to mention David Mitchell the Tory politician, David Mitchell the retired American ice dancer, etc. etc.).
2. Twitter has recently released information about its new ‘annotations’ feature, which allows users to annotate a tweet with structured metadata. A tweet about a new book release, for example, might let you link straight to a ‘look inside’ book widget or the Amazon page for the paperback. Launch of a test version is apparently imminent.
3. Facebook is making changes to its Open Graph protocol that have a semantic element. Website owners can add a “like” button to their site, along with semantic tags that tell Facebook’s servers what the page is about. According to Facebook: ‘based on the structured data you provide via the Open Graph protocol, your pages show up richly across Facebook: in user profiles, within search results and in News Feed’. So when a Facebook user clicks the ‘like’ button on a publisher’s site – relating to a particular title, or author, perhaps – a link is established between that site and their Facebook profile.

Advertising goes semantic

Any change in the way Google works has major implications for marketers. If using an entity graph changes the way Google delivers its search results significantly, the dark art of Search Engine optimization will have to respond and weighty volumes of SEO best practice to be revised.

But even more wide-ranging changes will have to be made to practice around online marketing, with micro-writing and metadata tagging becoming ever more critical aspects of the marketer’s art, as websites lose their traffic to Google’s interface, which now not only provides a place for people to enter search terms, but also a place for them to read the answers, with no further click-through taking place.

New Scientist speculates, however, that it is in the Facebook and Twitter changes that the main attraction of these developments may lie for advertisers. With the major players in social media on board, apps are already beginning to be written that can exploit the potential of semantically tagged data.

And – oh dear – here comes another water-based metaphor: mainstream adoption is likely to open the floodgates for such third-party development. This is because it solves the chicken-and-egg incentive problem of how you get website owners to tag their content. There is a clear incentive for any content owner to tag their content appropriately, providing structured metadata, if it means targeted, relevant access to Facebook’s 500 million plus user base.

Why should you care about this?

The implications for publishers are obvious. The opportunity exists, through semantic technologies, to massively improve the discoverability of their content online. But they also present a threat. Those who move fastest stand to gain a march on their competitors, while those who lag could well miss out.

This throws down yet another gauntlet to a traditionally conservative industry that may well feel it already has quite a bit on its plate to deal with. Even more reason, then, for publishers to embrace the world of online in a concerted fashion, if they are to reap the benefits and stay ahead of the competition.

Surf’s up!

If you’re investigating the use of semantic technologies, talk to Semantico first. We offer a Semantic Web consultancy service focused on helping publishers improve the discoverability of their content using the evolving semantic web. Contact us today.