According to Netcraft (www.netcraft.com) the World Wide Web currently comprises of more than one hundred million websites (1). As the proliferation of website continues to expand, the amount of information also continues to increase but unfortunately the management of information has not advanced. At this point in time web search engines are unable to understand a search; it only has the ability to list webpages that contain keywords entered in search terms. Current search engines like www.google.com are incapable of identifying whether a webpage is in fact relevant to the user’s search. For example: if a user searched “Apple” it may return a search result that lists information about the fruit “Apple” and the computer manufacturer “Apple”. It is simple for an individual to visit a webpage and comprehend the information but computers do not have the capacity to understand how keywords are used in the context of the webpage (2).
Tim Berners Lee envisions the future web to be a Semantic Web. His theory of the semantic web relates to the way computer will be able to scan and interpret information in webpages through software agents; which are programs that crawl through the web and search for relevant information. It will have a collection of information known as “ontologies”; files that define the relationship among a group of terms. Tim Berners Lee’s explains that the Semantic Web is about “giving information a well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in a cooperation” (1).
Some Internet experts predict that instead of multiple searches, users will be able to enter complex sentences into a Web 3.0 browser and the rest will be done for them. For example: if an individual enters “I want to shop for expensive designer clothes and have lunch with the girls at a well-known café. What are my options?” the web browser would analyse the user’s response, search the World Wide Web for all possible answers and then organize the results.
In the article How Web 3.0 Will Work John Strickland states: “Many of these experts believe that the Web 3.0 browser will act like a personal assistant. As you search the Web, the browser learns what you are interested in.” (1)
Therefore, Internet experts also predict that the browser will learn each individual’s interests, create a unique profile for each user and tailor their browsing experience accordingly. The individual may ultimately type in “Where should I go shopping?” and the browser can then refer to the records in their profile and filter the their likes and dislikes, obtain their current location and then suggest a list of stores/shopping centers the individual would be interested in. Further more, if two individuals each performed a search with the same keywords using the same search engine, they would subsequently received a list of different results established according by their individual profiles.
Many believe Web 3.0 will be a giant database that will use the Internet to make connections with information as opposed to Web 2.0 making connections between people. It will provide users with richer and more relevant experiences.
Here is a great YouTube clip that provides a great introduction to “Semantic Web”
University of Leeds.
2. John Strickland, ‘How Web 3.0 Will Work’, viewed 10 October 2010,
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