Seeking & Findability

Web 3.0 > Seeking and Findability

Finding information online that is relevant continues to be the most challenging of tasks. Google, MSN and Yahoo! among hundreds of others tasked with indexing the Internet continually come up short. Their popularity-based search algorithms lackluster when pitted against the promise of the semantic web.

People are capable of using the Web to carry out tasks such as finding the Finnish word for “car”, to reserve a library book, or to search for the cheapest DVD and buy it. However, a computer cannot accomplish the same tasks without human direction because web pages are designed to be read by people, not machines. The semantic web is a vision of information that is understandable by computers, so that they can perform more of the tedious works involved in finding, sharing and combining information on the web.

For example, a computer might be instructed to list the prices of flat screen HDTVs larger than 40 inches with 1080p resolution at shops in the nearest town that are open until 8pm on Tuesday evenings. Today, this task requires search engines that are individually tailored to every web site being searched. The semantic web provides a common standard (RDF) for web sites to publish the relevant information in a more readily machine-processable and integratable form.

Today’s web remains largely disconnected – silos of massive amounts of information, searchable, but lacking in relevance . Web 3.0 improves experience by increasing the findability of information by removing the need to seek it out through volumes of irrelevant web sites. With the web integrated across a huge space of data, you’ll have access to an unbelievable data resource that has context.