the web as a database

[Taavi Burns]

On 4/20/05, Zbigniew Koziol <zkoziol-Zd07PnzKK1IAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Wouldnt it be wonderful that after typing a complex SQL-like query to 
> Google I get a precise response with listing of all web pages on the 
> Internet that contain a relevant information that interests me?
> 
> The problem is that Google-like search engines index the content of HTML 
> pages. And HTML was designed to hold information that is supposed to be 
> displayed in the browser. It was not designed to categorise that 
> information. The HTML meta-tags like keywords and description are merely 
> an attempt only to ad some categorization but a poor attempt. Thats why 
> good search engines do not treat their content very seriously.

I believe what you're referring to is known as the "Semantic Web".
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

It's being worked on, but don't hold your breath.  It still does
require people to
do some work on their own to provide their data in RDF format.  But if everyone
did...oh my.  :)  The web would be a very different place.

-- 
taa
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