The next steps ... (was Re: Google starts supporting RDFa -- 'rich snippets')

Very well, very well. So we have learned now how it feels to switch from
total ignorance to lead a new technology. Just a reminder to all of us: for
years we have been ranting that Google et al don't pick up the Web of Data
stuff. Now all the big players (yes, also MS) do. Good for us.

I do not intend to rehash on the arguments pro or contra 'Google supporting
RDFa', no matter how much time they initially spent. Let us look into the
future and try to identify the options and a possible roadmap:

+ From now on, whenever you want/have to sell Web of Data stuff, you can
simply say: Google does it (as well ;)

+ We have now entered the next step in SEO. Let's call it semantic SEO. You
perfectly can continue use your own (well, actually the so called well-known
vocabularies such as FOAF, SIOC, etc.). Wherever you find some respective
Google term, you add a couple of triples. From the RDF perspective nothing
bad. The costs are minimal and you know from know on that Google does at
least something useful with it.

+ What does Google do? Well, it seems Google's use cases are clearly defined
and are gathering around rich snippets/CSE [1]. Not to bad for the start, a
clear value to communicate and to sell.

+ We have now learned (again?) that our 'little' (still a bit academic
world) can and will change from one minute to the other if one of the big
players decides to chime in.

+ Though ontology/vocabulary mapping etc. seems research-wise interesting,
in the real world economics determine which vocabularies are used. Let's
embrace this and not fight it (thanks, Richard, for the interesting
discussion earlier today, you brought this to the point).

+ One may assume that one of the next steps is indeed the special treatment
of typed links (in Google's case maybe again primarily for rich snippets).
Linked data and LOD, be prepared.

I for myself, being active in the RDFa Task Force since 2006, did celebrate
yesterday with a good pint of Guinness. FWIW, not due to the obvious reasons
(RDFa, etc.) but for the fundamental shift in the attitude.

Good morning, Web of Data! :)

Cheers,
      Michael

[1] http://iandavis.com/blog/2009/05/googles-rdfa-a-damp-squib#comment-1405

-- 
Dr. Michael Hausenblas
DERI - Digital Enterprise Research Institute
National University of Ireland, Lower Dangan,
Galway, Ireland, Europe
Tel. +353 91 495730
http://sw-app.org/about.html
http://webofdata.wordpress.com/


> From: Chris Bizer <chris@bizer.de>
> Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 10:27:31 +0200
> To: Linked Data community <public-lod@w3.org>
> Subject: fw: Google starts supporting RDFa -- 'rich snippets'
> Resent-From: Linked Data community <public-lod@w3.org>
> Resent-Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 08:27:30 +0000
> 
> Very nice.  After Yahoo SearchMonkey has been around for a while, things are
> now also moving at Google.
> 
>  
> 
> See:
> <http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-rich-snippet
> s.html>
> http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-rich-snippets
> .html
> 
>  
> 
> And Ivan's comment on it:
> 
> http://ivan-herman.name/2009/05/13/rdfa-google/
> 
>  
> 
> Cheers,
> 
>  
> 
> Chris
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Von: public-semweb-lifesci-request@w3.org
> [mailto:public-semweb-lifesci-request@w3.org] Im Auftrag von Matthias
> Samwald
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 13. Mai 2009 08:48
> An: public-semweb-lifesci
> Betreff: Google starts supporting RDFa -- 'rich snippets'
> 
>  
> 
> Quite preliminary, but still noteworthy. See
> http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-rich-snippets
> .html
> 
>  
> 
> They are also searching for new  vocabularies and data sources that they can
> potentially support, I guess they will soon support the popular vocabularies
> (FOAF, SIOC etc.) that are also supported by Yahoo Search Monkey [1]. Maybe
> we (the HCLS IG) could come up with a biomedical demo scenario based on RDFa
> and propose that to Google?
> 
>  
> 
> [1] http://developer.yahoo.com/searchmonkey/smguide/profile_vocab.html
> 
>  
> 
> Cheers,
> Matthias Samwald
> 
>  
> 
> DERI Galway, Ireland
> http://deri.ie/
> 
>  
> 
> Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution & Cognition Research, Austria
> http://kli.ac.at/
> 
>  
>

Received on Wednesday, 13 May 2009 14:43:21 UTC