Earlier this week, Richard MacManus posted an interesting list of 10 semantics applications to watch. Ironically, he forgot to include the world’s most popular semantic application, one that is used by millions of web sites all over the world, including McManus’ own Read/WriteWeb: Snap Shots.

A key element is that the apps below all try to determine the meaning of text and other data, and then create connections for users. (MacManus, Read/WriteWeb)

So, what makes Snap Shots a semantic application? Actually, both of the two main components of Snap Shots qualify:

1. Snap Shots analyzes links on web sites to bring the most appropriate information about the sites pointed to. So:
• Link to an online video - Snap Shots displays an inline player for it
• Link to a stock ticker on a financial website - Snap Shots provides an online stock chart
• Link to a Wikipedia article - Snap Shots generates a text summary on any given subject
• Link to a site/blog that syndicates its content using RSS - Snap Shots automatically formats and displays the latest headlines and excerpts
• And so on – the complete list of the 11 types of Snap Shots can be found here
2. Snap Shots displays "Related Searches" at the bottom area of many of the Shots. Using our search technology, we perform, on an ongoing basis, linguistic analysis of all web sites that are part of the Snap Shots network. As part of this analysis, we automatically try to determine the meaning of the content being linked to and generate short, related phrases using that content. During run-time, when users mouse-over Snap Shots enabled links, those short phrases are displayed in the lower section of the Shot. Users can then run searches on Snap.com for each one of the terms in order to learn more about these subjects.

   Here are a few of the millions examples we generate every day:

   Example #1 - A link to Pablo Picaso's Wikipedia page displays terms such as "MoMA", "Trinidad" and others.
   

   Example #2 - A link to an article on MacAfee's blog related to PDF spam displays terms such as "Computer Security", "Adobe Reader", "spam filter" and others.
   

So, as you look through the overhyped experiments, private betas, and academic projects that comprise most of the list, be sure to mouse over the little Shot Link Icons and use the real world Semantic Application that delivers more in a day than they will all year.

By the way, did anyone notice that AdaptiveBlue’s SmartLinks are very similar (actually painfully similar) to Snap Shots? We are glad that our product inspires other companies (eBay’s Snapshot view is the latest example) to innovate. At the same time, SmartLinks seems to be simply a rip off of a very successful product that was launched about a year prior to their recent debut.