The Semantic Web

One of the biggest challenges we face today as regards the information society is information overload, a problem that becomes ever greater due to the enormous size of the WWW. The Web gives us access to millions of resources, regardless of their physical location or language.

In order to deal with the huge amount of information, new models of business have emerged on the Web, such as commercial search engines (of which Google is by far away the most important).

Because of the Web’s anticipated continuous growth, it’s to be expected that browsers will have difficulties preserving quality in their results. Furthermore, search engines only find static content and are unaware of the dynamic part of the Web (pages built from databases).

We foresee that current-generation browser technology has reached its limits. In order to handle the continuous growth of the WWW (in size, languages and formats), its essential to exploit other information.

Here is where the Semantic Web comes in.

• Quotations on the Semantic Web
• Understanding the Semantic Web
• Further information

Full Text, for easy printing.

Here are five examples of real use of the Semantic Web:

• Access to Saragossa Town Hall on-line services.
• Helping new judges answer complex legal questions.
• Cantabria’s Cultural Heritage Ontology.
• WEASEL, Vodafone R&D Corporate Semantic Web.