Re: Uploading the Semantic Web into Google Base?

Hi Frank,

> b.  No point in being critical.   Google already *had* a central Web
> data repository.  All they're doing is adding structured data to it, and
> doing it in a "distributed" way (by asking everyone to contribute to
> it).  This seems a reasonable variant of the basic SW idea.  The fact
> that it is centrally *stored* should be just a technicality, provided
> the data is freely accessible.

Yes. I think free access to the data is the central point. When I read the
press about Google Base threatening eBay and other market places or when I
read stuff like Tim O'Reilly's "Data is the Next Intel Inside" 
(http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.
html?page=3) I'm wondering if Google's business model can be to give
everybody free access to the data? Up till now, they only provide an HTML
interface but no API. Anybody a clue if they are going to change this?
I doubt it and that is the problem.

> c.  We should be *very* happy that Google is promoting the idea of
> publishing structured data on the Web (maybe this will prod others into
> taking this more seriously than they are now).

I totally agree with you here.

Chris