Better business through linked data

Better Business with Linked Data and Semantic

Web

Jay Myers,

Web at a glance• 700 million active web sites on the

indexable web

• Over a trillion unique URLs discovered

by Google

• Billions and billions of users

• 1000x more web pages on the “deep

web”

Your site here?

The Semantic WebScientific American, May 17, 2001

“A new form of Web content that is meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution of new

possibilities”

SemWeb & Linked data standards• Data and relationships

• RDF (Resource Description Framework), includes RDF/ XML, Turtle, N3

• Vocabularies/ ontologies

• URIs

• Triples (Subject, Predicate, Object)

• SPARQL

Vocabularies/ ontologies

Or create your own!

Products are complex objects

Width: 35 ¾”

Height: 68 1/2”

Depth: 29 1/8”

Color: Black

Brand: Samsung

Material: Stainless steel

French doors

Regular price: $2,599.99 Sale price: $1,949.99

Model Number: RF267AERS/XAA

Bottom-loading freezer

Total capacity: 25.8 cu. ft.

Freezer capacity: 8.1 cu. ft.

Gallon door storage

They also have complex relationships

Product A Product B Product C

Sub-productZ

Sub-productYSub-product

X

Sub-productW

Sub-productVSub-product

U

There are many of them…

and they are specific

We are evolving…

“Human-readable” web of data

“Machine-readable” web of data

Human readable web of data

<div id="productsummary" xmlns:v="http://rdf.data-vocabulary.org/#" xmlns:gr="http://purl.org/goodrelations/v1#">

<div class="pdpsummarybox" typeof="v:Review-aggregate"><h1><span rel="v:itemreviewed">Apple&#174; -

iPad&#153; with Wi-Fi - 16GB</span></h1> <div id="detailband" rel="v:rating">

<strong>Model:</strong><span property="gr:hasMPN">MB292LL/A</span><span class="sep"> |</span>

<strong>SKU:</strong><span property="gr:hasStockKeepingUnit">9811355</span><br/>

<div id="reviewband" typeof="v:Rating"><strong>Customer

Reviews:</strong><img src="misc/ratings_star_4_1.gif" alt="4.1 out of 5 stars" /><span id="reviewscore"

property="v:average">4.1</strong></span><span content="5"

property="v:best"/></span><span id="reviewnum"><a

href="#customerreviews">Read reviews (<span property="v:count">179</span>)</a></span>

</div>

What does this get us?

Business benefits

• SEO/ product visibility• Promoting better product discovery

on an ever-expanding web• Creating more informed consumers

through findability (increased sales, decreased returns)• Utilize all of your product catalog –

the product “long tail”

Machine readable web of data

What does this get us?Deep, queryable product insight

Best Buy example:“Find me a description of the band Abba from the web of open data and an album for sale by them at Best Buy”

Result: ABBA was a Swedish pop/rock group formed in Stockholm in 1972, comprising Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. ANDBest Buy Sells the CD: ABBAMania: Tribute to ABBA – Various Artists, SKU 12073151

Other examples“Like for like” feature

For any given Best Buy product, display the products most like it, based on their product attributes

Other examples, cont.“Emotional Weather Report” POC

Given the weather at a particular Best Buy store, display products that might match the mood people are in due to weather/ environment

Business benefits

• New avenues of customer personalization• Deeper, more relevant and

contextual customer experiences• Utilize all of your product catalog –

the product “long tail”

Q&AJay.Myers@bestbuy.com

@jaymyers