Semantic Search - Web 3.0 for Drupal

One great thing i like about Drupal is that it keeps pushing the boundaries. I was searching for a module that will allow me to create a customised search feature on a Drupal powered site and came across Faceted Search module.

I don't remember how but later i come across this 'Semantic Search - Faceted search & Web 3.0 for Drupal' and it's this that i want to talk about.

If you have seen this presentation by Dries during the Drupalcon Boston 2008, you'll know it talks about RDF and the semantic web (Web 3.0):

Looks like the future is nearer than we expect. Semantic search is created by Jonathan Hendler. The original development was made possible by LINC and CivicActions. It uses an RDF store as a search index. It allows you to dynamically creates default search interfaces, for many searches per site, configurable via admin interfaces. Here is a demo, very impressive.

At this point, it is only in alpha stage but well worth keeping your eyes on this for what to come.

Of course, this is not for the fainted-hearted users as it requires quite a lot of dependencies on other existing technologies to be installed that don't really exist on a standard shared hosting package. But if you are the kind of user that enjoy getting your hands dirty and already run a test server, give it shot.

You will find a wealth of information on Semantic Search website and on the Drupal Project page.

To be honest, i still don't quite understand everything about it but if it become much easier to share data, data portability and better mashup then i'm all for it.