SPARQL, the query technology for the Semantic Web, is set for improvements for application development via a proposal before the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

With the semantic Web, more refined groupings of data is enabled. SPARQL, considered the query mechanism for the semantic Web, has been used in applications such as complicated mashups that query data, said Ivan Herman, W3C Semantic Web Activity lead. SPARQL Query 1.1 is part of a proposal put forward by W3C earlier this month. The new version of SPARQL is anticipated for release in the fall of 2010.

"Some of the new features try to make the development of applications easier, performing standard operations on the query processor side that applications have to do repeatedly today," Herman said. "Examples are calculating the minimum or the maximum of returned numerical values, combining returned values through standard operations like numerical multiplications, etc."

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