The semantic web is extending its reach into more and more businesses with tremendous effect. Ebags.com, for example saw a 33% rise in holiday sales in 2010 over its 2009 holiday sales. The company’s co-founder credits much of that increase to their new semantic retail platform powered by Endeca Technologies.

The new Ebags.com platform analyzes “shoppers’ keyword choices and clicks, and then winnows down results from categories to subcategories and microcategories. The end result? ‘Guiding the shopper to the perfect bag very quickly,’ Cobb says.”

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Semantic Tech & Business Conference Returns to San Francisco

Semantic Tech & Business Conference returns to San Francisco in June! Join us from June 3-7 for complete coverage of Big Data, Linked Data, Extreme Information Management, and Semantic Web. From breakthrough approaches to solving business problems to the big data implications of fast–evolving technologies, SemTechBiz provides you with an unparalleled interactive experience and delivers tangible business value. We're offering a special early rate when you register by February 17. Sign up now!

Changing the future of e-business Malta Business Weekly We are moving away from Web 2.0 and into the era of Web 3.0. Facebook, YouTube, social networks and blogs, that form part of Web 2.0, are only a pixel of …

With tools such as WordPress, Tumblr and Posterous, you might think there are already enough ways to publish content online quickly and easily. Primal, which is launching at the DEMO conference this week, thinks that it has something extra to offer. The company’s semantic tools allow publishers to create an entire site of interrelated webpages around a topic simply by typing in a few keywords. Unfortunately, the site’s service could make the growing problem of low-quality content on the web worse rather than better.

Co-founder Peter Sweeney got his start putting together websites for companies, then built a business setting up online communities and e-business sites for musicians before coming up with the idea behind Primal. “We are building Internet automation products, and this one is focused on publishers,” he said in an interview before the launch. “We want to make it so simple and easy to publish content online that anyone can do it in a matter of moments.” Other services let people create sites quickly, he said, but with Primal and its semantic tools, “they can create a whole, vibrant community around a topic.”

Publishers start with the service’s “thought networking” tools, says Sweeney, which involves typing in a series of keywords for a specific topic: for example, technology, social media, mobile, etc. The system then goes out to the web, aggregates content relating to those keywords from a variety of websites, and formats that information into a series of pages, complete with related Google ads. The service’s agents create topic sections and other navigation as well, which Sweeney calls a “lattice of ideas or thoughts to frame your work.” Users can choose the content they want, add their own thoughts or images, then publish with a single click (content can be hosted at Primal for free with advertising included, or hosted at a user’s site for a monthly fee).

 

While Primal’s tools are easy to use, the content that the service aggregates looks almost exactly like the auto-generated pages and websites some companies produce in an attempt to “game” the Google algorithm and generate a lot of SEO for their ads: a conglomeration of content that matches a keyword but is otherwise poorly written and badly formatted. In other words, what some call a “link farm.”

Will Primal’s tools be useful for teachers who want to create course material sites, or small businesses who want to post useful information about their fields? Possibly. But I think they’ll also be very popular with web-spam artists. For all the company’s talk about “community,” there aren’t really any tools — such as comments or voting — that would allow for true community input. Primal is backed by a group of Waterloo, Ontario-based angels, including early RIM investor Jim Estell, and is looking to raise a $10 million round of financing.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/external/gigaom/2010/09/14/14gigaom-primal-makes-content-automation-almost-too-easy-14138.html?scp=1&sq=primal%20&st=cse

Boulder, Colorado, June 23, 2010 –The NBJ Summit (www.nbjsummit.com) announced it will play host to eight-time Olympic medalist Apolo Ohno at the 2010 NBJ Summit. The American short track speed skating competitor will give the closing keynote speech at the 2010 event on July 23rd. Apolo is the most decorated American Winter Olympic athlete of all time and one of only four Americans who have won three medals in a single Winter Olympic games. In addition, Ohno is a principal with 8 Zone, a dietary supplement company.

Friday’s line-up will also include a morning keynote address by Kevin Harrington, a pioneer in the direct response television industry and a panel discussion with experts from leading non-retail channels which account for over $22 billion of nutrition industry sales. The executive retreat occurs July 20-23 at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort.

"I am especially proud of this year’s line-up of speakers and panelists" said Patrick Rea, Co-Chair of The NBJ Summit and Publisher of Nutrition Business Journal. "This year’s NBJ Summit will deliver on our theme – Investing Today to Ensure our Tomorrow – and offer our executive attendees an unparalled opportunity to network with industry leaders one-on-one."

To register, CEOs and leading executives are encouraged to go to www.nbjsummit.com/register immediately.  Less than 20 seats remain for attendees at The NBJ Summit.

Friday’s agenda will include the following sessions:

Opening Keynote: Kevin Harrington, CEO, TVGoods.com

Thriving Beyond the Shelf: Non-Retail Channel Strategies – Risks & Rewards
Speakers:
Joe Chang, President, Pharmanex
Kevin Harrington, CEO, TVGoods.com
Edward Hauck, President, Healthy Directions
Elizabeth Francis, CMO, Intelligent Beauty
Patrick Rea, Publisher and Editorial Director – Nutrition Business Journal
Closing Keynote: Apolo Ohno, American Winter Olympic Athlete & Eight-time Olympic Medalist

The full agenda, speaker list and speaker bios can be viewed at www.nbjsummit.com/agenda.

The NBJ Summit is produced by New Hope Natural Media, a division of Penton Media, and Nutrition Business Journal. New Hope Natural Media (www.newhope.com), a division of the Penton Media, Inc., is the leading media resource and information provider for the natural, organic and healthy products industry with print, in-person/event, and e-business products and services. Penton Media, Inc. is the largest independent business-to-business media company in the U.S., serving more than six million business professionals every month. The company's market-leading brands are focused on 30 industries and include 113 trade magazines, 145 Web sites, 150 industry trade shows and conferences, and more than 500 information data products. Headquartered in New York City, the privately held company is owned by MidOcean Partners and U.S. Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP, and its co-investors. For additional information on the company and its businesses, visit www.penton.com.

Nutrition Business Journal (www.nutritionbusinessjournal.com) is an executive newsletter for decision-makers in the natural, nutrition and complementary & alternative health industries.  The singular focus of NBJ's research and editorial team to the strategic issues of the nutrition industry has made NBJ the leading business intelligence resource for subscribers since 1996.

Back when I was an industry analyst (VP, E-Business Strategies at the META Group, since acquired by Gartner), I often had to critique emerging markets.  Unlike venture capitalists, industry analysts are privy to product roadmaps from publicly-traded companies, including the industry giants (Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, IBM).  And unlike i-bankers, they are privy to product roadmaps from start-ups.  And as a kicker, some analysts (actually, only those with the largest firms; back then, primarily limited to those analysts with Gartner, Forrester, META and Giga) get a lot of great feedback from CIOs and other end users.

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