There's a lot of discussion brewing on the Semantic Web. For example, you might check out the Google Group  or a Digg search when you get a chance. When you get there, you will find much techno-speak. Here's an example:

SELECT DISTINCT ?emp WHERE {
     {?emp ?p1 ?o} UNION { ?s ?p2 ?emp}
     OPTIONAL {
         ?booking employee ?emp .
         ?booking startDate ?sd .
         ?booking endDate ?ed .
         FILTER ((?sd >= someStartDate && ?sd <= someEndDate) || (?ed

ed >= someEndDate)). }

     FILTER( unbound(?booking) ) . }

I have no idea what this code does, but it's super exciting to the heavy-duty architects for the next evolution of our Web experience (they use words like "ergo", "concordantly" and "vis-á-vis")! One thing that is abundantly clear is that this is still a few years out. The concept is Web pages auto-tagging to make it easier for each of us to find what we want - making sense out of the pile of data we call the Internet! In a recent post on Read Write Web - Semantic Web: What Is The Killer App? - the author, Alex Iskold, analyzes "...several existing and potential applications of semantic technologies and look[s] for the killer app." What Alex missed was "Semantic Marketing" - identifying visitors that fit a specified profile and delivering more meaningful interactions. That's actually the tag line for our patent pending Semanticator™: More Meaningful Interactions.

As the first semantic marketers, we have been developing specific profiles that represent the majority of expected visitors for each client's website. To deliver a more meaningful experience, we must detect these profiles upon arrival. There are only 21 attribute types that can be detected before a session begins (as of this writing). They range from location to language preference to operating system to recent websites visited. Those 21 detectable attribute types each have a range of values from a dozen to thousands. With unlimited combinations available, we can create unique profiles specific to each client's branding, marketing and sales objectives. Then, when a profile is detected, we dynamically alter navigation, informational zones, content within zones, sponsored advertising, etc. to create the most relevant experience for each visitor. The best way to explain what we do is through a demonstration of one of our websites enabled with this technology, but here is an example I gave to a 20 year old bank teller the other day. He asked "uhh, what does ThoughtLava do?"

I said, "imagine a visitor to your bank's website had just visited another bank's website. And, imagine that she completed their small business loan application. I also want you to imagine that she prefers to speak Spanish, is located in Scottsdale and is arriving after typing 'small business loans + best loan incentives' into Google. Now, imagine if rather than the one-size-fits-all approach that your website currently delivers, she was presented with an alternate home page that is specifically focused on Small Business, with a link to a loan application and an area comparing your favorable loan incentives to that of other banks. It is also in Spanish and indicates the nearest branch office in Scottsdale. Do you think she'd be impressed? Do you think you'd have a better chance of winning her business?"

He said "Cool!"

What's cooler are the results over the last six months:

• the majority of the sessions are profile-driven vs. default (no profile detected - one-size-fits-all experience)
• profile-driven sessions have nearly double the conversion of default sessions
• profile-driven sessions have a significantly longer duration than default sessions

In conclusion, we think Semanticator™ is a top-down approach to the Semantic Web as described by Alex Iskold in another post - Top-Down: A New Approach to the Semantic Web. Alex says, "Here is what we are really looking forward to with the semantic web:

• Spend less time searching
• Spend less time looking at things that do not matter
• Spend less time explaining what we want to computers

A consumer focus and clear benefit for businesses needs to be there in order for the semantic web vision to be embraced by the marketplace." Semantic Marketing delivers on that promise today.