Seeing Forests

Read/Write Web has a post Semantic Web: What is the Killer App? that tries to identify a number of application categories from which the Killer Semantic Web application can emerge.  As a pet peeve, including “Natural Language Understanding” as a potential killer semantic web application weakens the post.  If we could have computers understand natural language that wouldn’t be a killer application for the semantic web, it could be a killer application for homo sapiens.  I mean, seriously, computers start understanding us they would throw Terminator smack-down on us in a microsecond. What does get closer to a useful Local 2.0 application of the Semantic Web is along the lines of John Markoff wanting a system that makes vacation recommendations in Entrepreneurs See Web Guided by Common Sense.  Some Local 2.0 Semantic Web-like applications that come to mind:

• Find me a funky restaurant near some fun places.  
• Book me a hotel in a cool neighborhood.
• Show me apartments that are easy commutes to my new job.

I don’t think you need to have a natural language interface to still help people answer these questions.    It seems like an intelligent application of statistics, social networking features, and then a sprinkling of semantic sugaring would offer a much more tractable near-term solution than waiting for Hal, Skynet, and the Semantic Web.   

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