Richard McManus of Read/Write Web just posted an insightful list of future web trends. I like this list for three reasons:

• The Semantic Web is listed as the #1 future Web trend
• Richard is a huge player in Camp Web 2.0
• I agree with every item on the list (though not necessarily what was said about them)

I'm not surprised to see the Semantic Web as the #1 future Web trend, simply because I feel it's a natural and necessary step in Web evolution. I'm happy to see this kind of enthusiasm and promotion coming from someone from the other team, and I think it just goes to show that a comparison between the two camps is unnecessary because the Semantic Web will supersede all current embodiments of the Web.

Richard states that the Semantic Web has been the next big thing for a long time, having attained an almost mythical status. It's true in a way, at least for people not working on creating the Semantic Web. We live in a pretty tight bubble, but we're finally breaking back through.

Figure 1

In the graph above we can see that the peak of interest in the Semantic Web (as far as Google search traffic is concerned) was in 1994 and interest has slowly (seemingly?) been lost by the masses. This was actually a blessing of sorts. The Semantic Web is an incredible initiative. I believe the calm we've been graced with over the past few years is going to end soon as we've steadily ironed out the issues related to the Semantic Web.