Google and the Semantic Web
02 August 2004 02:00

Slashdot linked to a very thought-provoking article today, "August 2009: How Google beat Amazon and Ebay to the Semantic Web". The story, though written as if it were done so in 2009, was written in 2002, and offers a very compelling look at the potential for the semantic web, of which, this article posits, Google will play a key role.

I can see Google playing that role, but I believe there is a vast bridge of complexity that needs to be crossed before we get to the rosy (and potentially disturbing) picture painted by the article. From what I read, heirarchical databases were sacked decades ago in favor of the relational model, principally because heirarchical databases were based on graph theory, which proved too complex a beast to manage. XML and its ilk (including RDF) are also based on the elements of graph theory.