On Schema.org and Why It Matters for the Web

Schema.org has addressed a critical issue for the Web - making it simple to annotate the data inside webpages at least for the most popular types of Web content. This has made it possible to deploy existing applications such as rich snippets more widely. However, schema.org still has a long way to go as new applications arise. In fact, the question often comes up whether schema.org is an end-all solution for defining terminology for the Semantic Web. At the current stage, the answer is definitely no, as much more in-depth vocabularies exist in specialized domains such as medicine. Over time, however, schema.org may provide a core linking hub for these more specialized efforts, the same way Dbpedia has become the linking hub of the Linked Data Web. The main challenge for schema.org is to be able to scale as it receives an increasing number of requests for extensions and alignment with existing efforts. Defining the right extension mechanisms and processes to support our growth is the schema.org steering group's current priority.