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Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2008December 2

In 2008 we saw the Semantic Web gain traction, giving us plenty of choice when selecting the 10 best Semantic Web products of 2008.

This is the first in a series of posts we'll publish over December, listing our choices for the top web products of the year. Then at the end of December, we'll post a Top 100 list - which we'll be promoting over 2009 and opening up at some point for public voting. Without further ado, let's jump into the top 10 Semantic Web products of 2008.

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Earlier this month we posted an update to 10 Semantic Web applications that we have been tracking for a year now. Some of those make this list, as well as some from our follow-up post 10 More Semantic Apps to Watch. We also have a couple of other products in this list, which for one reason or another didn't get mentioned in our watch-lists.

You may disagree with our selections, so do tell us in the comments what you think.

Note: the products listed below are in no particular order

Education 2.0: Never Memorize Again?December 2

Memorization is a waste of time when Google is only a a few clicks away. That's what Don Tapscott, author of the bestselling books Wikinomics and Growing Up Digital, believes. Tapscott, considered by many to be a leading commentator on our Internet age, believes the age of learning through the memorization of facts and figures is coming to an end. Instead, students should be taught to think creatively and better understand the knowledge that's available online.

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Rote Learning is a Waste of Time

According to Tapscott, the existence of Google, Wikipedia, and other online libraries means that rote memorization is no longer a necessary part of education. "Teachers are no longer the fountain of knowledge; the internet is," Tapscott told the Times. "Kids should learn about history to understand the world and why things are the way they are. But they don't need to know all the dates. It is enough that they know about

The End Of Online AnonymityDecember 1

It seems we're approaching a new age here on the Internet. Instead being anonymous, faceless IP addresses, social computing and changing technologies have allowed the lines between the "real" world and the "virtual" world to blur. Web 2.0 helped create a world where your identity is revealed in bits and pieces as you share snippets of your life online - a photo here, a Stumble there, a tweet, a Digg, etc. However, the rise of social media is only one of the changes that is busy shaping the new web.

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On tomorrow's web, we're no longer going to be anonymous. In fact, one can argue that we're no longer anonymous today, but that's not entirely true. We're still hearing of people hijacking people's names and brands on social networking sites like Twitter, for example, and any MySpace search for a famous celebrity will return hundreds of results purporting to be the "official" page for that person. But those days of "faking it" may be fading fast.

Being "Fake" Is Now A Crime

A precedent

Barack Obama's Change.gov Adds OpenIDNovember 27

OpenID has had a lot of big supporters, but this week President Elect Barack Obama's Change.gov added the ability for users to log in using an OpenID account and to post comments to sections of the website using OpenID. That's big news and is going to introduce a whole lot of people to the concept of federated identity.

Every other major player that has announced support for OpenID has in fact only allowed accounts with their company to be used as an OpenID elsewhere - they have not allowed other OpenIDs to be used to log in to their own sites. That means Barack Obama is cooler than AOL, MySpace, Google and Yahoo!. Maybe you already knew that, though.

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The site uses the commenting plug-in system Intense Debate, which was recently acquired by Automattic, the makers of WordPress. Change.gov isn't allowing comments on every blog post they put up, just on particular pages set up to discuss particular issues. Nonetheless, it's pretty awesome.

You can see the OpenID i

Citysearch Becomes More Social and MobileNovember 19

Citysearch, the popular local restaurant and shopping guide, announced a new beta version of its service tonight. The new version provides a better local search experience, with the ability to search specific neighborhoods instead of just metropolitan areas. Citysearch also announced a retooled mobile site, which lets users read and write reviews on their mobile devices, and gives them access to menus from participating restaurants. Citysearch has also implemented Facebook Connect, which allows users to log in to the site with their Facebook accounts, and the company plans to roll out OpenID support early next year.

You can fine the new beta at beta.citysearch.com.

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Obviously, the restaurant review market is quite crowded right now and a lot of the updates to Citysearch were surely prompted by the success of other services like Yelp.

More Local

Besides giving the service a cleaner and mo