2010年十大语义网产品

2010年12月03日15:53 腾讯科技

腾讯科技讯（Fiona）北京时间12月3日消息，据国外媒体报道，每年读写网(ReadWriteWeb)都会从各个领域中评选出十佳产品或程序。今年，十大语义网产品和应用的评选拉开了2010“最佳”系列产品评选的序幕。

今年，读写网从语义网的新创公司中选出了五个产品，从大公司里挑出了五项互联网应用。这些新创公司代表了语义网发展的前沿趋势。随着用户量的增长及科技的创新，今年的语义网产品对互联网产生了一定的影响。读写网所挑选的公司为语义技术的大规模应用提供了最好的例证，其中包括Facebook、谷歌及英国广播公司BBC等。

Semantic Web -- 语义网

虽然很多人认为Semantic Web（语义网）这个名词应仅用于已被W3C认可的技术（W3C全球万维网联盟），比如说RDF（资源描述框架，W3C提出的一组标记语言的技术标准）和 SPARQL（W3C的RDF数据工作组设计的一种查询语言和协议，用于RDF数据的查询），但是我们有时也会互换使用“Semantic Web”（语义网）和“Semantic technology”（语义技术）这两个术语。事实上，读写网所挑选出的十大应用技术中有相当一部分并没有获得W3C的认可，亦或已经在某种程度上得到调整，例如Facebook对RDFa的应用。因此，我们选择了将“Semantic Web”这个术语应用于更宽泛、包容更广阔的意义中。简单来说，语义网产品是将意义与语境融入到数据中去的产品。

以下是2010年十大语义网产品列表（排名不分先后）：

Freebase

今年七月，Google收购了一家语义技术领先公司Metaweb。Metaweb运营着一个开放的语义信息数据库Freebase。Freebase和维基百科类似，不同的是，它完全专注于结构化数据及个人用户可行性操作。

Google此前已和Freebase建立合作关系，引入Freebase的信息，在谷歌新闻里提供智能搜索结果。在完成对Metaweb的收购后，谷歌现在可以更充分地利用Freebase的工具和数据，尤其是在基本的Web搜索结果范畴。

Freebase也是去年语义网十大产品之一，能被Google收购，正是其发展潜能的证明。

GetGlue

对 GetGlue来说，2010年是个转折点。在GetGlue网上，用户在观看电视节目、阅读书籍、听音乐时候都可以“签到”。去年十一月，GetGlue改换品牌名称，并启用新网站。一夜之间，它从一个名为Blue Organizer的浏览器插件摇身变为名为“GetGlue”的目标网站。随后不久，它又推出了移动应用程序，用户在观看电视时或者在娱乐场所都能登录应用GetGlue。

品牌变更给GetGlue带来良好的效应。今年，GetGlue的用户量呈现出强劲的增长势头，截至九月末用户人数已超过60万。

Flipboard

2010年iPad的问市激起了应用软件界新一波的革新浪潮。Flipboard是一款专为iPad开发的杂志阅读应用程序。很少有创业公司能像Flipboard如此充分地利用触摸屏用户界面，为客户创造无与伦比的体验。

原来Flipboard不仅外观精美，而且采用了语义技术。

今年七月，Flipboard收购了语义技术新创公司Ellerdale，其智能资料剖析算法在此之前已被应用于实时搜索引擎的创建及趋势追踪。 Ellerdale公司的技术被Flipboard用于设计更具个性化的实时体验，能够为您选择重要的最新社会新闻，然后以您熟悉的酷似杂志的布局呈现出来。

Hunch

Hunch 最初提供问答（Q&A）服务，今年八月它进行了重新定位，将自己定义为一个提供个性化服务的产品：是能向你展示你喜欢的电影、书籍、度假地点及其他类似项目的推荐引擎。该公司的目标是“将互联网上的每个人和每个目标进行比配，即使是一个产品、一项服务、一个人。”

共同创始人Caterina Fake十月份透露，Hunch通过另一种搜索方式即决策树模型，为用户提供更多个性化信息。

Apture

Apture是一家提供语义语境搜索引擎服务的公司，它一直保持着强劲发展的势头（去年它也位列十大语义网产品之一）。今年八月，Apture推出了一款新插件Apture Highlights，能让用户深入了解在网络上任一网页上发现的主题。

早几年前,当我们第一次关注Apture时，它还只是一家网络服务公司，要求发布者上传弹出式窗口链接时自我选择是否加载多媒体。随着八月份Apture Highlight的问世，Apture现已消除此项限制。一切均自动化，此插件几乎处处可用。

Facebook

四月份Facebook公布了一个大规模的新平台Open Graph（开放图谱），这成为语义网本年度最重大的新闻。Open Graph通讯协定的预期目标是让发布者能够将个人网页整合到社交图中去。实质上，现在每个网页都可以成为一个Facebook的社交图“对象”（社交图是Facebook对于人们在其网络系统中如何联系彼此所用的专业术语。）这意味着在所有社交网用户个人资料页、博客文章、搜索结果、Facebook个人主页信息流等等中的网页都可以被引用和相关联。

Open Graph是一个涉猎广泛的平台，包括诸如“赞”按钮和为发布商提供的插件等。它还包括一个简单的、基于RDF的标记。这就要求发布者的每个发布项至少包含4个元数据属性：名称、类型、图像、网址，还有一些额外的属性，如：域名和描述，可能有选择地进行补充和说明。

Google Squared

在网络搜索技术中人们梦寐以求的目标是能够以自然的语言提出一个简单的问题，并得到一个简单的答案。五月份，Google宣布将Google Squared添加到其搜索结果中。2009年推出的Google Squared为Google的搜索结果添加了额外的信息。

Google通过两个层面将该功能添加到其传统搜索结果中：首先，简单的查询，如：凯瑟琳·泽塔琼斯的出生日期，这将在搜索结果中引出有用的数据：通过点击基于Squared提供的结果的“显示来源”，来源列表会向您显示Google是如何找到这个答案的。

其次，Google Squared还被用于为Google工具条（2010年搜索巨头的另一创新）增加“不一样”的新功能：此功能提供了相关搜索，列出您可能感兴趣的清单，由您确定当前的搜索关键词。

Google也通报了Rich Snippets功能上的增强，Rich Snippets功能同样也为谷歌的搜索结果增添了新信息——点评类数据。

Best Buy

2010 年的热议主题之一是语义网技术越来越多的被Facebook和Google这类大型商业公司所用。美国领先的零售商百思买（Best Buy）是另一个在2010年凭借运用语义技术给人们留下深刻印象的大公司。具体来说，Best Buy采用了RDFa的语义网标记语言，从而向网页中加入语义。

BestBuy.com 首席网站开发工程师Jay Myers今年早些时候接受读写网采访时说，使用语义技术的主要目标是提高BestBuy产品和服务的知名度。通过使用RDFa标记如商店名称、地址、商店营业时间和地理数据的数据，搜索引擎能够更容易的确定每个组件数据，从而将它们投入语境。Myers告诉我们，语义技术的使用，使得交易量增加，而他们也能更好的服务于客户。

Data.gov.uk

今年一月，由英国政府支持的Data.gov.uk发布非个人数据采集应用，可供软件开发商使用。半年后，美国政府推出了Data.gov，但是从一开始这个网站就拥有三倍以上的数据。发布时，Data.gov.uk已有近3000套数据集可供开发商用于混搭。到今年年底，数据集已超过4600。

Data.gov.uk是链接数据库的亮点之一。组织或政府向网络上传数据时，以能够被再次使用和建立的形式进行上传。链接数据库仅是广泛语义网发展的一小子集。

[B]BBC[URL=http://worldcup.qq.com/]世界杯[/URL]网[/B]

今年体育界的盛事就是被媒体广泛报道的世界杯。BBC2010世界杯网站采用“动态语义发布”技术来提升加强其每日世界杯报道。

该网站有700多个[URL=http://tech.qq.com/zt/index.htm]专题[/URL]网页，都由一个语义发布框架所支持。它包含一个综合本体（即一个概念图），动态输出自动化元数据驱动网页。这是一个让人印象深刻的实证：一个大型的主流的网站是怎样增加意义及结构的？ [URL=http://www.qq.com/#pref=article][/URL]

Every year ReadWriteWeb selects the top 10 products or developments across a range of categories. We kick off the 2010 'Best Of' series with our selection of the top 10 Semantic Web products and implementations of the year.

This year we've chosen 5 products by semantically charged startups and 5 implementations by large organizations. The startups represent the cutting edge of Semantic Web. Each has made an impact on the Internet this year, with user growth and innovation. The organizations we've selected - which include Facebook, Google and the BBC - offered the best examples of large scale deployment of semantic technology.

A note on terminology: we are using 'Semantic Web' and 'Semantic technology' somewhat interchangeably, although many people believe that the term Semantic Web (upper case) should only be applied to W3C-approved technologies such as RDF and SPARQL. The fact is that a good portion of our top 10 use technologies that are either not approved by the W3C (the Web's governing body, led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee), or they've been tweaked in some way - for example, Facebook's use of RDFa. So we've chosen to use the term 'Semantic Web' in its broader, more inclusive, sense. In a nutshell, these are products that add meaning and context to data.

Here then is our list of the top 10 Semantic Web products or implementations of 2010 (in no particular order).
Freebase

In July [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_buys_semantic_web_database_metaweb.php]Google acquired[/URL] one of the leading Semantic Web companies, [URL=http://metaweb.com/]Metaweb[/URL]. Metaweb runs [URL=http://freebase.com/]Freebase[/URL], an open, semantically marked up database of information. It looks similar to Wikipedia, but Freebase is all about structured data and what you can do with it.

Google already had a relationship with Freebase, pulling in its information to [URL=http://www.google.com/support/news/bin/answer.py?answer=144273]provide intelligent search results[/URL] within Google News. With the acquisition of Metaweb, Google can now leverage the company's tools and data even further, especially within basic Web search results.

Freebase was one of our [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_semantic_web_products_of_2009p2.php]top 10 Semantic Web products last year[/URL] and being acquired by Google validates its potential.
GetGlue

This year was [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_getglue_taps_into_our_emotions.php]a turning point[/URL] for [URL=http://getglue.com/]GetGlue[/URL], the service where users "check in" to watching TV shows, reading books, listening to music and more. Last November, GetGlue changed its branding and [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/getgluecom_distributed_networking_recommendation.php]launched a new website[/URL]. It changed almost overnight from a geeky browser add-on called Blue Organizer to a destination website called GetGlue. Mobile applications followed soon after, enabling its users to interact with GetGlue while watching TV or at an entertainment venue.

[URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/great_scott_how_inventive_companies_like_getglue_b.php]The changes[/URL] have been good for GetGlue. It's experienced strong growth this year, reaching over 600,000 users by the end of September.

Disclosure: GetGlue's founder and CEO, Alex Iskold, used to be a regular contributer to RWW.
Flipboard

The launch of the iPad in 2010 triggered a new round of innovation in the startup community. Few startups utilized the touchscreen UI to create a unique user experience more than [URL=http://flipboard.com/]Flipboard[/URL], a magazine reading application [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_flipboard_was_created_its_plans_beyond_ipad.php]built specifically for the iPad[/URL].

It turns out that Flipboard isn't just a pretty face, it's also using Semantic technologies.

In July, [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/flipboard_new_social_ipad_magazine_will_be_powered_by_semantic_data.php]Flipboard acquired semantic technology startup Ellerdale[/URL], whose intelligent data-parsing algorithms had previously been used to create a real-time search engine and trends tracker. Ellerdale's technology was used by Flipboard to design a more personalized real-time experience - determining what social updates are important to you and presenting them in its now familiar magazine-like format.
Hunch

[URL=http://hunch.com/]Hunch[/URL] started out as a Q&A service, but in August it re-positioned as [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hunch_internet_personalization_service.php]a personalization service[/URL]. It's a recommendation engine that shows you movies you want to see, books you want to read, vacation destinations you want to go to, and much more. The company is on [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mapping_people_to_products_hunch_getglue.php]a mission[/URL] to "map every person on the Internet to every object on the Internet, be that a product, a service, or a person."

Co-founder [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_hunch_went_from_qa_to_guessing_your_preference.php]Caterina Fake told us in October[/URL] that Hunch uses a decision tree model, as an alternative to search, to provide more personalized information to users.

Apture

[URL=http://apture.com/]Apture[/URL] is a semantic contextual search service which [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/apture_for_your_browser_like_augmented_reality_for.php]continues to iterate strongly[/URL] (it made our top 10 list last year, too). In August, Apture launched [URL=http://apture.com/extension/]Apture Highlights[/URL], a plug-in that allows you to dive deep into any topic you discover on almost any page around the web.

When we first noticed Apture several years ago, it was a service that required publishers to load up linked pop-up widgets with multimedia of their own choosing. The company removed that barrier to entry with its August release. Everything is now automated and it's available almost everywhere. Indeed we liked it so much, we started using Apture on ReadWriteWeb (there is no commercial relationship, we just think the product adds to our site's user experience).
Facebook

Arguably the biggest Semantic Web news of the year came in April, when Facebook announced a large-scale new platform called the [URL=http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph]Open Graph[/URL]. The stated goal of the Open Graph protocol was to enable publishers to "integrate [their] Web pages into the social graph." Essentially, each web page can now become an 'object' in Facebook's [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_graph_concepts_and_issues.php]social graph[/URL] (which is Facebook's term for how people connect to each other in its network). This means that pages can be referenced and connected across social network user profiles, blog posts, search results, Facebook's News Feed, and more.

The Open Graph is a wide-ranging platform which includes features such as 'Like' buttons and publisher plug-ins. It also includes a simple, RDF-based markup. This requires publishers to include at least 4 metadata properties in each object: title, type, image, URL. There are a few additional properties which may be optionally added, such as site_name and description.

See also: [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_open_graph_the_definitive_guide_for_publishers_users_and_competitors.php]Facebook Open Graph: The Definitive Guide For Publishers, Users and Competitors[/URL]
Google Squared

The holy grail in web search technology is to be able to ask a simple question, in natural language, and get a simple answer. In May, Google [URL=http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/understanding-web-to-find-short-answers.html]announced that Google Squared[/URL] was coming to its search results. Google Squared, which [URL=http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/more-search-options-and-other-updates.html]launched[/URL] in 2009, adds additional information to search results.

The functionality was added to Google's traditional search results in two ways. Firstly, simple queries such as [URL=http://www.google.com/search?q=catherine+zeta-jones+date+of+birth]Catherine Zeta-Jones' date of birth[/URL] elicited useful data within the search results:

By clicking "show sources" on the Squared-provided result, a list of sources appears showing you how Google arrived at this answer.

Secondly, Google Squared is being used to provide a new feature in Google's sidebar (another innovation by the search giant in 2010): "Something different". This feature provides a list of related searches that may be of interest, determined by looking at your current search term.

This year Google also [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_semantic_web_push_rich_snippets_usage_grow.php]reported strong growth in its Rich Snippets feature[/URL], which adds extra information to Google search results too - in this case, data like review ratings.
Best Buy

One of the themes of 2010 was the increasing usage of [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/w3c_pleased_with_semantic_web_adoption.php]Semantic Web technologies by large commercial companies[/URL] like Facebook and Google. Leading U.S. retailer, [URL=http://www.bestbuy.com/]Best Buy[/URL], was another large company to impress in 2010 with its adoption of semantic technologies. Specifically, Best Buy used a Semantic Web markup language called RDFa to add semantics to its webpages.

[URL=http://jay.beweep.com/]Jay Myers[/URL], Lead Web Development Engineer at BestBuy.com, [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_best_buy_is_using_the_semantic_web.php]told ReadWriteWeb in an interview[/URL] earlier this year that the primary goal of using semantic technologies was to increase the visibility of Best Buy's products and services. With data such as store name, address, store hours and GEO data being marked up using RDFa, search engines are now able to identify each of those data components more easily and put them into context. The use of semantic technology, Myers told us, led to increased traffic and better service to its customers.

Data.gov.uk

In January, [URL=http://data.gov.uk/]Data.gov.uk[/URL] launched to make non-personal data held by the U.K. government available for software developers. It arrived [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/datagov_finally_launches_looks_nice_but_short_on_d.php]six months after the U.S. government launched its Data.gov site[/URL], but from the start the U.K. site had more than three times as much data. At launch, Data.gov.uk had nearly 3,000 data sets available for developers to build mashups with. By the end of the year, that had increased to over 4,600.

Data.gov.uk was one of the highlights of the year in Linked Data, which is when organizations or governments upload data to the Web in a format enabling it to be re-used and built on. Linked Data is a subset of the wider Semantic Web movement.

See also: [URL=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_state_of_linked_data_in_2010.php]The State of Linked Data in 2010[/URL]
BBC World Cup Website

The biggest sporting event of the year was the soccer World Cup, which was widely covered in the media. The [URL=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/default.stm]BBC World Cup 2010 website[/URL] used "dynamic semantic publishing" technology to enhance its daily World Cup reporting.

The site featured over 700 webpages and was powered by a semantic publishing framework. It boasted a comprehensive ontology (a map of concepts), that output "automated metadata-driven web pages" created on-the-fly. It was an impressive demonstration of how a large, mainstream website can add meaning and structure.

There you have it, ReadWriteWeb's selection of the top 10 Semantic Web products and implementations of 2010! Let us know in the comments whether you agree or not with our top 10.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_semantic_web_products_of_2010p2.php