1. 2009-9-12 Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: Struct…
Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: Structured Data
Written by Richard MacManus / September 7, 2009 5:30 AM / 12 Comments « Prior Post Next Post »
This week ReadWriteWeb will run a series of posts detailing what we think are the 5 biggest, most cutting edge Web trends to
come out of 2009. We'll be posting one trend analysis per day. Then at the end of the week we'll publish a major update to our
standard presentation (http://www.slideshare.net/ricmac/readwriteweb-presentation-dec08-presentation) about web technology trends.
The first major Web trend we're looking at is Structured Data. In prior presentations 159
(http://www.readwriteweb.com/bestof.php) , this has sometimes been referred to under the umbrella term of 'Semantic tweets
Web'. However the way 2009 has panned out so far, it's become clear that this trend is much more than the Semantic retw eet
Web. In this post, we'll analyze the developments in Structured Data this year and provide you with 3 product
examples: OpenCalais, Google, Wolfram Alpha.
Web of Data, Not Documents
Tim Berners-Lee said in February (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web.html) this year that we're now in a Web of
Data (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/linked_data_is_blooming_why_you_should_care.php) , rather than a Web of Documents. The
organization that Berners-Lee heads, the W3C, has heavily promoted two key initiatives that are helping to build this Web of Data: the
Semantic Web (http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/) and more recently Linked Data (http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html) .
However over the past few years, we've seen that there are many other ways to structure data and enable others to build off it. The best
current example is surely Twitter (http://twitter.com) , whose API has historically been responsible for around 90% of Twitter's activity
(http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_open_platform_advantage.php) - via third party apps.
The basic principle of the Web of Data is still the same as what Alex Iskold articulated on ReadWriteWeb
(http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_30_when_web_sites_become_web_services.php) back in March 2007: "unstructured information will give
way to structured information - paving the road to more intelligent computing."
Example 1: OpenCalais
Our first example product, OpenCalais (http://www.opencalais.com/) , is probably the best current example of Linked
Data (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/calais_4_linked_data.php) (which is a type of structured data endorsed by
W3C). Thomson Reuters, the international business and financial news giant, launched an API called OpenCalais in
Feb '08 (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/reuters_calais.php) . (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/reuters_calais.php)
In a nutshell, OpenCalais turns unstructured HTML into semantically marked up data. It orders data into groups such as 'people,' 'places,'
'companies' and more. This way, third party applications and sites can build interesting new things from that data - one of the defining
principles of Linked Data.
For a full explanation of Linked Data, read Alexander Korth's technical introduction The Web of Data: Creating Machine-Accessible
Information (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_of_data_machine_accessible_information.php) from April 2009. I also explained the
background and benefits of Linked Data in a May '09 post entitled Linked Data is Blooming: Why You Should Care
(http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/linked_data_is_blooming_why_you_should_care.php) .
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2. 2009-9-12 Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: Struct…
Example 2: Google Rich Snippets
In May this year, Google added structured data
(http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/search_options_google_search_evolves.php) to its core search, in the form of a
feature called 'Rich snippets.' Essentially this feature extracts and shows useful information from web pages, by way
of structured data open standards such as microformats and RDFa. On launch in May, Google invited publishers
(http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-rich-snippets.html) to mark up their HTML. While it will
take a while for this markup to become widespread, the fact that a huge company like Google implemented it shows
the increasing importance of structured data on the Web.
Other big companies are also heading in this direction - in particular, Yahoo was an early leader
(http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/yahoo_searchmonkey_launches.php) .
Example 3: Wolfram Alpha
Ever since Wolfram|Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/) 's much hyped launch in May
(http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/wolfram_alpha_launch_starts_tonight.php) , we've been tracking this innovative
product (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/wolframalpha_our_first_impressions.php) closely. It's a self-described
"computational knowledge engine" and while it's not quite the Google killer some predicted, it has many potential uses
(http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/wolframalpha_the_use_cases.php) .
Wolfram|Alpha has a search engine-like interface, allowing you to type natural language statements into it. But the main part of the product is
the computations you can do on data. The product is premised on using and computing data. If Web 2.0 was about creating data (a.k.a.
user generated content), then the next generation of the Web is all about using that data.
Conclusion
We can see from the above three examples that structured data is rapidly becoming a feature of today's Web. Companies like Thomson
Reuters and Google are enabling data to be structured, and new types of products (like Wolfram|Alpha) will make use of structured data in
ways we perhaps can't imagine right now.
ReadWriteWeb's Top 5 Web Trends of 2009:
1. Structured Data
2. The Real-Time Web
3. Personalization
4. Mobile Web & Augmented Reality
5. Internet of Things
For more on "semantic web" see hakia
Comments
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3. 2009-9-12 Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: Struct…
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to commentsbeing old by companies that have as their core values profit over public good.
1. How come we all seem to be o.k. with the internet of Date for all ReadWriteWeb posts
For me this is hypocritcal. In one era of the internet we say that it is "evil" for a company to try to own the OS space, and now it is o.k. for a group of
companies to control the data of the intenet. What a crock !!!!!
Once again open standards taken over by Companies.
Posted by: william | September 7, 2009 6:34 AM
2. Are the terms "structured data" and "linked data" used interchangeably, and if not, what is the difference?
Posted by: Michael | September 7, 2009 9:43 AM
3. @Michael "linked data" is a type of "structured data".
Posted by: Edmar | September 7, 2009 1:01 PM
4. No, these terms are far far apart.
"Linked data" is a formal set of strictures how to use URIs in the context of the semantic web, another formal and well-defined term. Go to the W3C
site and read the details if you are interested.
Structured data is a vague term that just means what it says, and has no real formal definition outside this article. Any database or XML document or
tag-value table offers structured data, so the term is pretty loosy-goosy.
If you ever use one term as a synonym for the other, you are making a mistake.
Posted by: Miramon | September 8, 2009 11:17 AM
5. Miramon: Thanks for answering my question with such clarity!
Posted by: Michael | September 8, 2009 6:36 PM
6. I really don't understand how any of the companies you have mentioned are part of some new emergent "real-time web". The web has always been
real-time, or as close to it as technology would allow. Over time, technology improves, so we should expect latency times to decrease. There isn't
some new media format evolving, it's just that tech is getting better, and people are becoming more comfortable using tech. Ken Fromm's definition
of the "real-time web" is overblown and misguided. Can we please stop focusing on marketing jargon as if it represents legitimate entities.
Posted by: achat pc | September 9, 2009 5:21 AM
7. Can see Alex Iskold's comment on 'intelligent computing' coming into play here - good point. Specifically that layers of data from Web services (e.g.
Google snippets) are making it more like real-time informed computing through peripheral data.
However, it'll be interesting to see if/when we approach our threshold of how much real-time, embedded data is too much.
Posted by: Nathan Richter | September 9, 2009 7:04 AM
8. achat pc @ 6:
I've come to realize that these tech blogs thrive more on buzzwords and Gartner-promulgated hype terms than on technology. There's not too much
that can be done about it -- hype sells, and journalists generally don't understand technology very well, so they tend to feed on themselves.
Still they do occasionally post something worthwhile....
Posted by: Miramon | September 9, 2009 7:59 AM
9. Miramon: Would like to follow you. What is your Twitter user name?
Posted by: Michael | September 9, 2009 8:17 AM
10. Michael: I do not tweet, so following my account will only find a very rare reply.
Posted by: Miramon | September 9, 2009 8:30 AM
11. Structured Data is indeed an exciting trend! New tools are appearing, creating a whole eco-system of cloud-based services for extracting and
otherwise dealing with structured data.
Orchestr8 today launched a new structured data mining capability called 'Visual Constraints'. Constraints enable extraction of structured data
(product information, pricing, descriptions, etc.) from web pages, using simple "natural language" queries, such as: "all links after product details"
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS82425+10-Sep-2009+PRN20090910
Posted by: Elliot | September 10, 2009 6:19 AM
12. Wow Luis Vuitton must be scraping the bottom of the barrel if they are resorting to random posts to random blogs and forums. Very sad.
But I guess proceeds from the sale of one bag can pay for a thousand scum-sucking viral marketers for a year. Nice work if you can get it.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 11, 2009 8:27 AM
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