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April 22, 2009
Get Semantix - a multilingual semantic mashup
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written by Marek Foss
It’s been a little quiet on the blog, because I was busy developing the next version of Semantix — a semantic mashup connecting all major semantic web services that is probably the first semantic service with multi-language support. By analyzing texts, Semantix gives you smart summaries, annotates contents with keywords and categorizes them. And it’s all written in Perl, so it’s uber-cool ;) If you’d like to learn more about Semantix and get an invite to the private beta, continue reading.
At this stage, Semantix uses services like OpenCalais, Freebase, Yahoo Content Analysis and SemanticHacker to get the semantic knowledge from the texts. With the help of Google Translate, the service can process content in many different languages. The results are divided into keywords, categories, concepts and a smart summary. The last one needs a word on, as an especially interesting idea.
Smart summary is an excerpt taken from your text, which includes only the most important sentences. The importance of each sentence is determined using semantics. The output summarization includes the key content, but is significantly shorter than the original.
Keywords are what they sound like — tags from the text. Categories on the other hand are predefined groups to which the text belongs to — very useful in sorting contents, as the categories are fixed boxes into which we throw the input. When you look at the sample output from Semantix, you see how it all works.
Currently, Semantix is a private beta, and I am running tests with quite a few testers. The nice thing about the feedback system is that you can not only rank the output or leave a comment, but also exactly pinpoint the incorrect semantic elements by clicking on them and literally crossing them out.
If you would like join the group of Semantix testers and help improve it, post a comment to this article. I will then contact you with an access key to the service, and you’ll be able to see it on your own. I’m looking forward to your feedback!
