Tech Hive

Not yet anyway.

Earlier, it was said that Sir Tim Berners-Lee, only the inventor of the world wide web, mentioned that Google will be a goner for something that is called the semantic web. Sure, the ideals are nice, but sir, in all fairness, you can’t convert every developers and designers out there just because of these ideals.

Just take a look at the current state of web standards.

Semantic Web

According to Wikipedia:

The Semantic Web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which the semantics of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content. It derives from W3C director Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the Web as a universal medium for data, information, and knowledge exchange.

In layman’s terms, semantic web is when all of our data online can be understood not only by the people looking into it, but also by the sites itself. Through semantic web, searching will be easier because everything is laid out in a web where every single thing is interconnected by one another because of the meaning attached to it through the coding used.

So, maybe it’ll give rise to Web 3.0? Perhaps in terms of design they’ll bring back the grunge? Just to show that we’re non-conformist.

Anyway, according to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, “It’s about creating a seamless web of all the data in your life.”

Also:

One example frequently given is of typing a street address which, if it had “semantic data” built into it, would link directly to a map showing its location, dispensing with the need to go to a site like Google `maps, type in the address, get the link and paste it into a document or e-mail.

Sounds ideal, right? Now, let’s move on.

Semantic Coding

Semantic coding should not be confused with creating standards-compliant web sites because creating standards-compliant websites are all about following the rules dictated in the doctype of your choice. Semantic coding, on the other hand, is all about giving meaning in the data through the codes you’re using.

Let me cite an example.

You surely have seen several “Download his/her vcard” link, right? It’s dominant in business-related social networks such as LinkedIn. When you click on the aforementioned link, you’ll be able to download the information regarding that specific user such as their full name and their location, job position, company etc. if they have specified those information.

If you’re following the news on FF3, you would have known that they will be giving built-in support to this vcard as well. Meaning, even if they (web author, site owner) did not provide a download link on their information, you, as a user, will still be able to download and add their contact info to your address book granted that they have coded it using the proper elements.

That is a part of microformats.

But semantic coding is not limited to just that, semantic coding also means using <strong> instead of <b> when you want to emphasize something. It also means that the classes and IDs you’re using aptly describes what that specific block of text or data means — like using articles-list for a classname instead of just lists and so forth.

It also means providing proper hierarchy and structure to your documents — there should only be one h1 which will be followed by several h2s which will then contain h3s where an h3 should never be able to precede an h2.

Why I think the Semantic Web won’t fly (yet)

Making web designers and programmers follow web standards is a very daunting task already, just imagine the ordeal of having to lecture other designers and programmers why they should use elements that give proper meaning to their content is a very good practice. Can you? Imagine, I mean, how long it will take?

And am I the only person who doesn’t want the semantic web to become a reality because it’s kinda creepy? I’m pretty sure it will make stalking a very nice past-time.