Thenextweb Wiki



Web 3.0, The "Semantic Web"
Today, the Internet is ubiquitous. It's within everyone's reach almost all of the time – either in their pocket, in their hand, or on their desk. This wiki will explain the changes about the current state of the web. The World Wide Web is not to be mixed with the Internet as they are separate domains. The Internet is a network of connected devices around the world, while the World Wide Web is the information presented in the form of webpages – millions of webpages. The web was first formally known as Web 1.0, now currently Web 2.0 – and soon to be Web 3.0 – and it continuously adjusts to the way humans interface with it. A short video of Web 3.0 will help build a basis before reading on below.

A Brief History of the World Wide Web
The  World Wide Web  (abbreviated W3) is essentially a large and ever-growing collection of interconnected documents and content. This information is typically in the form of a  webpage, where a user can  hyperlink  from one  webpage  to another in order to find more information about a topic or product. The  W3  is also used to facilitate communication between people by using computers. The World Wide Web was created by Tim Berners-Lee.

How are Semantics involved?
Semantics are the personalized tailoring of information to each individual. This is one of the main differences between Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. Web 3.0 is extremely personalized. Instead of being a static catalog of information for users to click through, they are now given personalized results based on their interests, needs, browsing history, and even location. Much of this is done through deeply embedded Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining.

How is Web 3.0 Defined?
In a nutshell, Web 1.0 was the least interactive web, at the time known as the "read-only" web. After Web 1.0, Web 2.0 became the social iteration of the web, where social media, sharing, folksonomies, and user communities changed the way users interact with the web. At this point, the web has become a tool that most people rely on or use in some way on a daily basis. Web 3.0 transitions users into a web that is more intelligent and automatic without much user interaction (ironic of Web 1.0's minimal user interaction).

In an article from MIT Technology Review in 2007, Tim Berners-Lee discussed the idea of a semantic web that would be able to do more than just organize information. Through iterations of HTML and the addition of XML, data organization has been successful in the sense that users have a much easier and more efficient time locating information, but Berners-Lee determined that computers need to be able to make distinct relationships between data like humans can. This would create a personalized web that is thorough and efficient in research because web semantics allow for deeper meaning of information rather than top surface definitions. With access to multitudinous data throughout the Internet, Web 3.0 has a sense of artificial intelligence.

Berners-Lee describes an Internet that can learn about people and match certain information with online data. If able to learn about someone's schedule, a program based in Web 3.0 could be able to plan, schedule, and communicate an event on behalf of a person. Web programs that can understand context of a situation or a person will be incredibly efficient on a daily basis – take Google Now as an example. Web 3.0 creates a web space that learns user behaviors, patterns, likes and dislikes, and it contours the web experience for that user.