That’s right. Finished. Over. End of Life. Move over Web 2.0; the next phase in the web, Web 3.0, the new “Semantic Web or the Intelligent Web” is here. Or is it? There is definitely a lot of blogging and articles being written on the subject. Articles about the Semantic Web, a term coined by Tim Berners-Lee (the man who invented the first World Wide Web), as being the next evolution, promising a more organized, easier to use, intelligently searchable web are popping up everywhere.

So is this the way to be able to take on Google – “Is Semantic Technology the Anwser?”. Companies like Microsoft and others are suggesting it is.  Even Scobeleizer has admitted that “I finally get “semantic” Web“. He does admit that attempts to read the various hypothesis were of no real help. It took someone like Nova Spivack of Radar Networks to demonstrate it is even possible. While taking a trip into the stratosphere in a MiG-25, Spivack was told when asking about the eject button:

Don’t worry about eet. At the speed you will be going, even if you could eject, first your body would explode into vapor, then the vapor would freeze into ice crystals, and then the crystals would burn up on reentry.

This is a great analogy for what he is attempting to do; break down and re-organize the cloud that is the Internet today.  He is trying to build a web that thinks the way people do, to get computers to understand and be able to differentiate between the nuances and relationships in information they encounter on the web. Hakia, has launched its meaning-based Semantic search engine, and is quickly gaining new believers. Another talked about company in this emerging new technology is San Francisco-based PowerSet; while they are yet to launch publicly, they have begun “invite-only beta testing.” However, it is Nova Spivack and Radar Networks, backed by no less than Paul Allen (as recommended by his favourite turtleneck), who is leading the way.

Couple this with the fact that, while Google is looking at the technologies, it is becoming increasingly pre-occupied by other interests outside of search. “That leaves an opening for upstarts – if they can provide users with a good enough reason to switch from Google’s powerful simplicity, said Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence. “These engines need to create incentives to change and reward people for their behavioral change,” he said. “If (semantic search engines) deliver, people will likely respond.” So there you have it. Web 2.0 is dead. Just not yet.