Semantic Web

Character limitations in passwords considered harmful

For about the 4,000th time in the last five years, I tried to sign up for a new Web service, but it wouldn't accept my proposed password. Apparently, the site operators decided that passwords should contain only letters and numbers. Aarrrrgh! This isn't the first time I've seen this idiocy, and it won't be the last. But it should be.

Guidelines on how to construct a strong password almost uniformly recommend using a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Tools for generating passwords (for example, strongpasswordgenerator.com) encourage the use of … Read more

Wolfram Alpha: Next major search breakthrough?

Stephen Wolfram has a track record of scientific breakthroughs and some controversy. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Caltech in 1979 when he was 20 and has focused most of his career on probing complex systems. In 1988 he launched Mathematica, powerful computational software that has become the gold standard in its field. In 2002, Wolfram produced a 1,280-page tome, A New Kind of Science, based on a decade of exploration in cellular automata and complex systems. The book stirred up a lot of debate in scientific circles. Legendary physicist Freeman Dyson described the tome as &… Read more

Glue binds the social and Semantic Web

For the last few years AdaptiveBlue has offered a semantically rich Web application that understands things such as books, movies, and music. Clicking on text, such as a company or movie name, brings up a context-sensitive menu of related links. The company is taking its technology a step further, adding a social dimension and renaming the product, "Glue." Along with Radar Networks' Twine and Powerset's Wikipedia search engine (acquired by Microsoft), Glue offers a compelling glimpse into how the Semantic Web will add a new, powerful level of intelligence to the Internet.

Rather than just connect things … Read more

Radar Networks delivers Twine 1.0

After less than a year, Radar Networks is going from beta to version 1.0 of its Twine "interest network" Web application based on Semantic Web technologies. "We are not spending four years in beta," said Radar Networks CEO Nova Spivack. "We have a minimal set of features ready for prime time."

The minimal set of interest network features allows Twine users to track and discover relevant organizations, products, people, places, tags, and items, such as photos, documents, and recipes, that match their interests. Twine has a social dimension in the way it leverages … Read more

Start-up developing new Web interaction paradigm

In the midst of the financial meltdown and a contentious upcoming election, you might think the U.S. government and taxpayers are just funding wars, bank bailouts, and bridges to nowhere or somewhere. But this is the same government that funded the Internet way back when and is also funding the next generation of technologies that will make the current Internet seem like a Model-T.

Over the last several years, the U.S. government--via DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) grants--has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in PAL, an acronym for "Personalized Assistant that Learns." Smarter software … Read more

Radar Networks readies new release of Twine

In March, Radar Networks launched Twine, an application that organizes information and connects people, places, companies, products, Web pages, videos, and photos. Along with Metaweb's Freebase, Powerset (sold to Microsoft), Hakia, Reuters' Calias, AdaptiveBlue and a few other start-ups, Radar Networks is trying to crack the code on building a piece of the semantic Web.

In a Times Online article, Web creator Tim Berners-Lee gave an example of how the semantic Web would work:

"Imagine if two completely separate things--your bank statements and your calendar--spoke the same language and could share information with one another. You could drag … Read more

EIC Squared: Indexing Flash; Powerset; and Viacom vs. Google

On this week's EIC Squared podcast, ZDNet's Larry Dignan and I discuss this week's big stories. It was a busy week on the search front. Adobe is providing Google and Yahoo with Flash Player technology that allows their search engine crawlers to find and index SWF content, including Flash "gadgets" such as buttons or menus and self-contained Flash Web sites. It's good to make more information accessible via search engines. However, Microsoft has been silent on whether Live Search would index Flash content.

In addition, Microsoft bought Powerset for about $100 million to enhance … Read more

It's official: Microsoft acquires Powerset

As expected (see previous reports), Microsoft scooped up Powerset to buttress its search efforts.

It's not a replacement for increasing market share by acquiring Yahoo Search, but it gives Microsoft some differentiated search technology and top engineers for less than $100 million. Ramez Naam, group program manager of Live Search, said the Powersoft negotiations happened in parallel with the Yahoo talks over the last few months. Google and Yahoo may also have been interested in Powerset, but no one is talking.

Whether Microsoft can leapfrog Google over the long term with this semantic engine remains to be seen.

Powerset … Read more

Linking print and mobile at the New York Times

Beet.tv's Andy Plesser has an interesting interview with Michael Zimbalist, vice president of R&D at The New York Times Co. He describes how the newspaper company is finding ways to link print and online in the mobile arena and how rich annotation of content will lead to more personalized delivery of information and the Semantic Web.