Semantic Search and Rich Media

Text is still the key driver of search and navigation across the Internet. It is the most efficient and effective method of communicating 'meaning'. However, with the prevalence of rich media on the Web, 'Semantic' search is becoming more important as a way of locating and navigation through the vast amount of audio and video.

Semantic Web adds structure to text by creating an additional layer of meaning around a content object. Computers are still not that competent at discerning context. Even advanced business intelligence tools require user text content to define data relationships and add meaning to analytics information.

Howver, when text is combined with structure it adds that much needed element to wrap meta data around content - articles, photos, podcasts, videos.

Meta data is 'information about information'. In text form, is provides the 'currency' of the Semantic Web. In time, search engines will rely on rich meta data for content discovery, presentation, contextualization, and ad targeting.

A simplisitc example of meta data used online is Googles PageRank. It provides more information about the information on the web page by interpreting which pages link to each other, and using this data to calculate an authority and popularity of an individual page.

Behavioral targeting and collaborative filtering are other good examples of use of meta data online. The success of behavioral targeting and collaborative filtering depends on two elements:

deep knowledge of the user
deep knowledge of the content

Unfortunately knowledge of each one, depends upon the other. High-quality content meta data provides more robust behavioral profiles, whether for ad targeting, recommendations, rankings, etc.

The application of semantic search extends beyond the boundaries of the Web, with corporate enterprise knowledge extending into multimedia content. As business intelligence tools seeks to include both structured and unstructured data in their analytic queries, the need for ALL content to have a complete and consistent set of meta data attached is critical to being able to unlock the 'intelligence' contained within the content.

As our business and personal worlds both move towards multimedia at an increasing rate, the Semantic web is escalating in importance. Without key content objects possessing the native capability to present themselves as text, the ability to attach scalable descriptive titles and tags is the beginning of ensuring complete intelligence and media visibility and access in the future.

What gets tagged - gets found!

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