With great fanfare, last week Google announced its new comprehensive Privacy Policy for users, supposedly replacing more than 60 individual policies with one all-encompassing policy. If you are a Google registered user, you may have received an email announcing the changes. Here’s the summary:
While this simplification of policies in itself is a notable accomplishment, the real news is hidden in all the Privacy Policy niceties. In short: the arrival of Web 3.0 (aka the Semantic Web) is closer than you think.
Some background on the Semantic Web
In 1999, the founder the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, shared his dream for the Web in which intelligent agents (services/bots) become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web –across platforms and community boundaries – combining information, and presenting it to users in a meaningful way.
Berners-Lee: “A ‘Semantic Web’ has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.”
Need a practical example?
The semantic Web will be able to give you “a reasonable and complete response to a simple question like: “I’m looking for a warm place to vacation and I have a budget of $3,000. Oh, and I have an 11-year-old child.” Under today’s system, such a query can lead to hours of sifting — through lists of flights, hotel, car rentals — and the options are often at odds with one another. Under Web 3.0, the same search would ideally call up a complete vacation package that was planned as meticulously as if it had been assembled by a human travel agent.” (source: New York Times article)
Seems far off? Hence the association with the futuristic Web3.0.
Google hints that Web3.0 is just around the corner
So back to Google’s announcement last week about their Privacy Policy changes.
From their blog : “Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.”
And here is where it gets interesting. In explaining this “more intuitive Google experience”, Google’s blog post goes on to give some examples, including: “We can provide reminders that you’re going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what the traffic is like that day.”
Wow. Just like that, the Semantic web has arrived for the everyday web user (or almost here)!
What this means for eBusinesses
When everyday users begin to experience the interconnectedness of Web3.0, their user expectations will be dramatically raised. For eBusinesses, that will mean a new level of sophistication for all customers that decide to opt-in:
- End-to-end personalization
- Sophisticated data capture, data interconnectivity, and Customer Intelligence
- Seamless online/offline integration
- All built on effective, trust-inspiring Privacy Policies and Processes
The shift from Web1.0 (brochureware) to Web2.0 (social web, mashups, interactivity, rich media) was dramatic. The evolution to Web3.0 will be equally so.
Will your eBusiness be at the leading edge or become a laggard in the Web3.0 customer experience? Now is the time to start mapping out your strategy.
Until next time – Axel