Twine Brings Web 3.0 Closer To Reality

Today, at the Web 2.0 Summit, Radar Networks has announced the beta launch of its innovative new semantic web service known as Twine. It is consequentially being touted as the first mainstream Web 3.0 application.

In basic terms, Twine will provide a central hub that connects information from around the web in one location. This includes several different file types, for instance photos, videos, documents, news stories, RSS feeds, bookmarks, contacts or anything.

The concept, developed to provide a “smarter way to share, organize, and find information” with others, is known as knowledge networking according to Radar Networks Founder Nova Spivack. “It’s the next evolution of collective intelligence on the Web. Unlike social networking and community tools, Twine is not just about who you know, it’s about what you know. Twine is the ultimate tool for gathering and sharing knowledge on the Web.”

What sets Twine apart is its ability to use artificial intelligence and natural language processing to scan and understand the meaning of information. On its own, Twine can find patterns that may not be easily apparent to users, making information and content on the web more likely to be discovered by those interested. It is built on Radar Networks’ patent-pending platform and complies with the open-standards for the Semantic Web set by W3C. In fact, the W3C mentions that the semantic web is “about common formats for integration and combination of data drawn from diverse sources,” which is the exact focus of Twine.

VentureBeat's Chris Morrison has provided possibly the simplest description of the semantic service's ability:

“Let’s dumb this down to a very concrete example. In Twine, I might be identified as “Chris Morrison,” and then labeled with the markers 'writer,' 'venturebeat,' 'male,' 'technology,' 'charming' and 'good-looking' (all true, of course). Twine would set me apart from the many other Chris Morrisons running around.

That could help a headhunter narrow their focus, a marketer collect all the information about a particular product, or a group of analysts to aggregate information on a subject.”

Richard MacManus was able to discover from Spivack that revenue for the service will be generated through advertising and user subscriptions (with advanced features), although details are still being finalized. Also, several screenshots were obtained showing the user interface and features of Twine.

“Web 3.0 is best-defined as the coming decade of the Web, during which time semantic technologies will help to transform the Web from a global file-server into something that is more like a worldwide database. By making information more machine-understandable, connected and reusable, the Semantic Web will enable software and websites to grow smarter,” said Spivack. “Yahoo! was the leader of Web 1.0. Google is the leader of Web 2.0. We don’t yet know who will be the leader of Web 3.0. It’s a bold new frontier, but Twine is a strong first step, and we’re very excited about it.”

The open platform should help foster use of the service by its core demographic (web professionals/ content providers) and developers. With no sign of releases anytime soon from competition, Twine will have a chance to build a user base and a name for itself before web 3.0 becomes a craze.