Rajendra Akerkar discusses the difference between the current web which contains unstructured data in web documents versus the semantic web which aims to structure data to be readable by machines. Semantic markup languages like RDFa, microformats, and microdata embed structured data in web pages so they can be understood by both humans and machines. This brings the web of documents and web of data closer together. Search engines are now able to provide more relevant search results by utilizing structured data embedded in web pages.

1. Rajendra Akerkar

2. Current Web: written mostly for humans
Current Web vs. Semantic Web
Unstructured data Structured data
Web of documents Web of data
Interesting information for
machine agents exists
g
Example: concert events in
Bergen (date, performer, venue)
Problem:
Web page markup does not explicitly encode
information
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3.  Embedding structured information on the same web
bedd g st uctu ed o at o o t e sa e eb
pages
Approaches:
Microformats
RDFa
RDF
GRDDL
Microdata
Open Graph Protocol
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4. Web sites can easily reuse
y
content from other sites
To increase organic traffic!
Reasons:
1. Differentiation from the
Competition
2. Help Search Engines Better Sort and
Value your Content
Enables site owners to mash
up data from a wide variety
f i ti
of sources in creative ways
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5. 5015.jpg is a
picture of a
i t f
hotel named
Augustin
The semantic markup helps
machines sort the information
on a Web page.
p g
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6.  A way of embedding structured information in (X)HTML
documents:
 One page for both humans and machines
 Don’t need to repeat yourself
 Introducing new XHTML attributes
 http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml‐rdfa‐primer/
Goal: Bringing the Web of Documents and
the Web of Data closer together.
the Web of Data closer together
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7. SearchMonkey makes use of RDFa and
y
Microformats in Search
 an open platform for using structured data to build
more useful and relevant search results
Illustrates the difference between a basic search result and
the same search result enhanced with structured data.
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8.  It is an html semantic
markup (RDFa &
microdata) that
improves the display of
search results and
makes it easier for
people to find the best
web content.
web content
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9.  Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo
Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo
 In early June 2011 announced schema org a new service
announced schema.org, a new service
intended to create and support a common vocabulary for
structured data markup on web pages.
 The idea is to provide a library of vocabularies to embed
p y
machine‐readable data into web pages in a manner that
h d bl d b h
can be fully exploited across search engines
search engines.
 Schema.org appears to be Linked Data Lite with
h b k d h
limited support for vocabularies available at
schema.org/docs/full.html
 Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Yandex publish intent
to support RDFa Lite
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10.  Schema.org does not use RDF as a data model instead it
uses very generic Microdata supported bye HTML5 derived
from RDF Schema
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11.  The Open Graph Protocol enables you to integrate
Web pages into the social graph
b h l h
Benefits:
• To enable users to more easily find and interact
with the content that you create
• You’ll be able to gain valuable insights into your
website visitors
b it i it
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12.  Akerkar, R. Foundations of the Semantic Web. London: Alpha Science International, 2009.
 D. Connolly, Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages (GRDDL),
http://www.w3.org/TR/grddl/ (last accessed on 08.10.2011)
p // g/ /g / ( )
 Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, http://dublincore.org
 F. Manola, E. Miller, RDF Primer, http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf‐primer/ (last accessed on
08.10.2011)
 Microformats, http://microformats.org (last accessed on 08.10.2011)
Microformats http://microformats org (last accessed on 08 10 2011)
 Open Graph Protocol http://ogp.me/ (last accessed on 20.10.2011)
 T. Celik and K. Marcs: “Real World Semantics”
http://www.tantek.com/presentations/2004etech/realworldsemanticspres.html (last
accessed on 08.10.2011) )
 Importance of Facebook’s Open Graph Protocol for Business Marketing.
http://xebidy.com/the‐importance‐of‐facebook‐open‐graph‐protocol‐for‐business‐marketing/
(last accessed on 18.10.2011)
 RDFa in XHTML: Syntax and Processing, W3C Recommendation, http://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa‐
syntax/ (l
/ (last accessed on 08.10.2011)
d 08 10 2011)
 Tools. RDFa Wiki, http://rdfa.info/wiki/Tools (last accessed on 10.10.2011)
 SearchMonkey: http://developer.yahoo.com/searchmonkey/
 HTML Microdata, http://www.w3.org/TR/microdata/
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