This post was written by Liz Brady
Radar Networks has announced the 1.0 product launch and general availability of Twine. Twine helps users keep up with their interests, together with friends, family, colleagues and groups. Twine has enjoyed a very successful private beta program, which began in March, 2008. Twine connects users to relevant content, products and people that match their interests, by leveraging the “wisdom of crowds” and next-generation Semantic Web technologies. Twine is the first of a new breed of software; using semantic-based technology. Twine enriches the content within the network to automatically make useful connections and recommendations to users.
Salesforce.com has initiated the platform-as-a-service concept, which company Chairman/CEO Marc Benioff also called Web 3.0, during an event that emphasized deployments of enterprise applications in the cloud. With platform-as-a-service, called Force.com, developers can deploy enterprise applications on-demand without having to provide infrastructure. According to Benioff, although the concept of platform as a service is relatively new, it has already gained traction.
Semanti has offered its new SemantiFind browser plug-in that enables the users of search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to leverage semantic technologies in order to get better search results. The free tool, sitting on the browser as a toolbar, can help users to almost bookmark the web pages which they find useful. Semanti, thus, joins TigerLogic and Gogimon in the league of software providers looking to enhance research results from search engines with the help of a browser add-on. The difference is that SemantiFind employs semantic search to augment the activity for the Web sites ranked by users useful with one click.
On The Christian Science Monitor, Chris Gaylord says that till now, Ask Jeeves? search engine, which had branded itself as the web’s trusty maître d’ where you can type in your query in the form of a question – and Jeeves suggested where you could find an answer, was the best way to find your answer. But now, the Powerset startup website actually reads what you wrote. The search engine encourages you to write the way you speak, and then uses your phrasing to search entries in Wikipedia. Powerset is an early player in what’s called “semantic search” and Gaylord tells surfers to expect a lot more of these natural-language options to come.
Peer39, a technology company based in New York City, launched a new advertising product, SemanticMatch™ that provides the ability to serve ads based on the meaning of a website page’s content. Unlike contextual targeting which matches ads to pre-selected keywords, SemanticMatch™ uses proprietary algorithms that can glean content meaning and sentiment down to the page level. In addition, unlike behavioral targeting ad methods, SemanticMatch doesn’t need to track user behavior or place cookies, so if effective, this product may be very attractive to advertisers and publishers who want to avoid growing privacy concerns about online advertising.
Microsoft Inc. has purchased the first semantic search engine, Powerset. The purchase offers an interesting insight into how Microsoft plans to grow its search business. Powerset is currently testing a semantic search engine, in part using technology licensed from Xerox’s PARC subsidiary. That technology creates a semantic representation of Web pages by parsing each sentence and extracting its meaning.
Microsoft Inc. has announced the acquisition of Zoomix, an Israeli company that does database data cleansing. Zoomix combines linguistic analysis with machine learning to classify, match and standardize complex corporate data, which is the application of “semantic” technology being applied to SQL Server. Technologies such as the self-matching intelligence engine by Zoomix could help Microsoft better understand linguistic search.
A collaborative research team led from the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET) at the University of Cambridge has received a £1.5 million grant for an ESRC/EPSRC Technology-Enhanced Learning to explore new ways of using the World Wide Web to enhance teaching and learning. The team will examine the potential benefits to teachers, learners and researchers of using emerging ‘Semantic Web’ or ‘Web 3.0′ technologies.
Expert System has released two semantic Web products in the U.S., COGITO Monitor and COGITO Focus. COGITO Monitor is a semantic-based analyzer of consumer opinions and sentiment from online forums and blogs. It searches throughout the Web, measuring and graphing ‘customers’ feedback about your companies’ products and services. On the other hand, COGITO Focus is a semantic indexing, search and analysis tool that manages strategic internal and external information.