August 2009 How Google Beat Amazon and Ebay

August 2009: How Google Beat Amazon and Ebay to the Semantic Web By: Paul Ford (Written in 2002)

Virtual Marketplace l l l Amazon and Ebay earn profits through a virtual marketplace Buyers and Sellers were allowed to interact through their website to make transactions Amazon and Ebay take a “cut” of every transaction

Google develops Semantic Web l l What is a semantic web? *A way of describing things for computers to understand * The meaning, not just what’s going on Example of this logic: Jim has a friend named Paul. Therefore, Paul has a friend named Jim Idea: using a language called RDF to put logical statements on internet that can be searched, analyzed, and processed. *statements can now be combined Semweb is not just pages and links; it is relationships

Semantics vs. Syntax How is semweb thought to be achieved? *Generate meaning from a whole lot of syntactically stable statements (millions) l Idea: a centralized database could be used across the entire web by everyone l Everybody has their own little database for their information *Google introduces Google Marketplace Search, Google Personal Agent, Google Verification Manager, and Google Marketplace Manager. l

Google Marketplace Search A Google Semantic Search feature l You enter: buy: martin guitar *to see all people selling Martin-brand guitars l You can organize results by price, condition, model number, new/used, and proximity l Google gets this information by crawling the RDDL files, which point to RDF files… Example: (Scott Rahin) lives in Zip Code (11231) (Scott Rahin) has a (Martin Guitar) [Scott’s] (Martin Guitar) costs ($900) l Things in parentheses/brackets are pointers: pointing to URL’s that contain special knowledge about it: (Martin Guitar) is an (Acoustic Guitar) (Guitar) is an (Instrument) l RDF- data about web data (metadata) l

Web Accountability and Rating Framework Different websites contain statements about the same person: [Kara Dobbs] says (Scott Rahin) is (Trustworthy) *on James Drevin’s site, Google finds: [James Drevin] says (Scott Rahin) is (Trustworthy) and [Citibank] says (James Drevin) is (Trustworthy) l How is this like Pagerank? *quality of RDF depends on quality of others pointing towards it l What problems could arise from this framework? *nature of truth and human behavior *intrude on privacy l Many other things could also be included in framework l

Google Marketplace Manager How does Google get the information? l MM is software that resembles a spreadsheet in which you list personal information (what you want to buy/sell etc. ) l MM initially a “logical statement editor” l People enter names, addresses etc. , and MM saved RDF files, and Google updated l What is Open Product Taxonomy? *a structured thesaurus where you identify the type of product for sale Example: you enter an ISBN # from back of book and MM fills the rest in (author, copyright etc. ) by querying for RDF l

Google Personal Agent Service rather than search l Software that queried Google and notified you when it found what you wanted l You could be updated on ANYTHING Example: You want to know when the price of a video game goes down. l Negotiating for you: if it found an ipod in good condition for less than $100 *Negotiation would depend on preset rules l

Google Verification Service “Web of Trust” idea l Verification and rating service for $15 a year l You must answer a questionnaire, go through a credit check, and provide some bank account information l People reluctant to participate, yet trust Google because they are the marketplace l

What happened to Ebay and Amazon? Other clones of MM were made, but they didn’t charge a transaction fee l Amazon and Ebay incorporated RDF on their auction-based and item sales sites l Drop box introduced by Citibank: *identified by a single number; can only receive deposits straight to a checking/savings account *URL-addressable *no risk giving out the number *no fee for deposits Result: Everyone could sell their goods without any “middleman” l Google eventually dropped its fees and allowed Drob Box accounts also, charging $25 a year for MM software sellers l Google would tie Drop Box accounts to stock to try to make profit l

Semantically Terrifying Future? Too much privacy, or not enough privacy? l Guns and Drug smuggling: *Example of the yacht *Google Personal Agent acting as the “middleman” with code words * “the seller who wont sell you out” l Possibility of Mandatory Metadata Review bill l