Jennifer Zaino
SemanticWeb.com Contributor

Michael Jackson almost certainly didn't know about the semantic web, but it knows about him. Semanticweb.com has put together a short list of how some leading semantic web applications are serving up the latest (and past) information on the late entertainer to his fans and to the just plain curious.

Google Rich Snippets

One of the first features of Google Rich Snippets -- which highlights structured data embedded in web pages -- provides disambiguation among people who might share the same name, so that searchers could see on the snippet things like the individual's location and job title to see if it's a match to the person they are actually looking for. Given the storm of publicity over the pop star's death and funeral service, you probably don't even need Rich Snippets to help you identify stories about him.

But it could come in handy to target the other Michael Jacksons out there, like Michael Jackson the radio talk show host, or Michael Jackson, The Beer Hunter, who wrote about the yeasty brew and died in August of 2007. The Beer Hunter site appears to utilize microformat markups that, along with its Beer Hunter title, may be helping Google searchers separate what it's about out from the coverage of that other Michael Jackson.

Twine

The leading twine on Jackson boasts 43 items and just 10 members. Perhaps that's not surprising, given that the site seems to draw more of a tech/science/finance/politico/social-issues-oriented crowd (based on a casual survey of the top Twines). So, even though it may not be the most-traversed spot for information on the controversial entertainer, it hooks into some interesting links, such as a photo essay of the young Jackson at home and his last photos from his upcoming concert rehearsal, courtesy of Time magazine.

Wolfram Alpha

Search on Michael Jackson and you'll get information here about his birth and death date, place of birth, and death. Search on the day he died, though, and fans will be disappointed that no known major notable events took place that day. You can, however, find out other facts. For instance, that 14 years, five months, and 3 days separates his birth date from that of his mentor and friend Diana Ross. Or that "Beat It" was released 26 years ago and reached number 1 on the charts. Or that the city where he was born (Gary, Indiana) has a population under 100,000, whereas the city where he died (L.A.) has nearly 4 million. Or that it's a 25-minute flight from Gary to Detroit, the home of Motown where the Jackson Five had its first success.

Yahoo SearchMonkey

Checking out the MTV Artist Info SearchMonkey application, in honor of Michael Jackson being the first African-American singer to have a video appear there, you'll get the name, description and image of the artist from their MTV music page. The Michael Jackson page features videos of his MTV moments, a life and legacy tribute, a 1996 Q&A, and of course the famous MTV videos themselves -- "Thriller," "Billie Jean," and so on, as well as a photo gallery and news articles.

Hakia

Mouse on over here for a categorized listing of links related to the fallen pop star: his music profile, bio and timeline, famous songs, videos, lyrics, awards, images, and so on. Some of the more interesting category links are to his quotes -- including one in which he reflects that E.T. reminds him of himself, and the controversial comment on the British TV documentary about sleeping arrangements with children who stayed at the Neverland Ranch.

But, misplaced here under Headline News is a misplaced and semantically incorrect reference to Beer and Michael Jackson -- that is, to The Beer Hunter, though there's nothing equal to Rich Snippets to give you that insight before you click over. Also, looks like some updating needs to happen on the Concert Tickets link -- something tells me those aren't going to happen anytime soon.

Bing

Well, finding out what the best deals are on unopened Jackson CDs may not be a high-profile matter, but it's fun to peruse what's out there. There's a deal for 25 unopened CDs, including "Thirller," for a mere $25K; or if you don't have quite that much to spare you can get "Dangerous" for $500 at flikband.com. You'll also be linked to the Music Price Guide site, where you could seal a deal for the "History 3" vinyl set for just about $200. I'm not sure if I'm reading this one right, but it looks like for a cool $2 million someone is willing to part with a rare Jackson Five 45 RPM. Any takers?