Extracting and integrating structured information from web databases using rule-based semantic annotations

The Semantic Web is envisioned to be the next evolutionary step of the Word Wide Web. It will allow programs to access information and interact with services similar to the way people use the Internet today. The required standards have already been developed, and also large databases containing factual information have been published in the appropriate format. However, more casual, every-day information like that published by used car dealerships, resellers, and other data contained in web databases is not available yet. We believe that bringing this type of information to the Semantic Web could greatly increase its use and help bring it into people's everyday lives. In this paper we present a model for such web databases and show how to integrate these sites into the landscape of the Semantic Web by transparently converting and forwarding queries to conventional web databases.