Having touched on Semantic Search in general terms, this post explores it in a bit more detail. Having watched a series of webcasts from Semantic Universe on the tools of Web 3.0, I have been on the lookout for interesting semantic applications that shed more light on the power of Web 3.0. From my subscription to the Web 3.0 social network site Twine, a daily digest led to Thinkbase, which is actually a visual representation of Freebase. These three sites are all built on Web 3.0 platforms, utilizing RDF datasets. In English, this means they are next generation sites that allow semantic-type searches on stores of information. Freebase is in part an RDF-formatted version of the information in Wikipedia – one of our favorite information sources. Thinkbase draws the information from Freebase and displays it in a Mind or Concept Map. The searched subject (Texas in our example) shows as the central concept, with lines connecting it to various related topics. These lines are drawn from the “predicate” portion of an RDF Triple. As a reminder, these triples are in the format: subject – predicate – object. The predicate aspect is the connection between the other two (thus the line connecting them). The map extends out as objects become subjects for the next extension. 
Thinkbase is a nice illustration of Web 3.0. It’s fun to watch the maps expand as the system makes the next generation of triple connections. This system will obviously benefit from more RDF datasets, but even at this level it is quite interesting. And this application provides a real-world example of how semantic search tools will work and provide value. I’ll keep watching for more Web 3.0 / Semantic tools and concepts to show. The more I dig into these concepts, the more interesting they become.
