E-Media Tidbits

Yesterday, John Battelle's Searchblog noted that local news search engine Topix has just sold a 75% stake to three major news organizations: Gannett, Knight Ridder, and the Tribune Company. Battelle observed, "None of the news companies will have the ability to control [Topix], and this alone says volumes about how Web 2.0 is terrifying the newspaper industry. They can't even buy their competition outright!"

I think Battelle was referring not specifically to O'Reilly's widely publicized Web 2.0 conference, but rather to a phenomenon known as the semantic web – a major topic of that conference. The semantic web is quietly, gradually revolutionizing how people get and use information and news.

Probably the best explanation of the concept can be found in this 2001 Scientific American article by Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and Ora Lassila. They wrote, "The semantic web will bring structure to the meaningful content of web pages, creating an environment where software agents roaming from page to page can readily carry out sophisticated tasks for users. ...The semantic web is not a separate web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation." News organizations should start learning about the semantic web now and revamp their online services to leverage it, if they still wish to be viable in coming decades. The Topix deal is just the tip of the iceberg here.