Here's something you may find funny if you study the evolution of software technology.#
In the 80s there were all kinds of ideas about how to do hypertext. Mostly they called for two-way links, so you could walk the graph in any direction you like. These were hard to implement and required the two parties work with each other, and that never happened. #
In the early 90s along comes Tim Berners-Lee, a random NextStep developer who wanted to play and he for whatever reason didn't wait to figure out how to boil the ocean with two-way links, he just did one-way links and instead of inventing a new protocol he just implemented it on top of TCP/IP. While the purists were debating its purity it took off, broke all records, made a lot of people very rich.#
A few years later, Tim Berners-Lee, the same guy who made the web, wants to layer a new protocol on top of the web -- the Semantic Web. He wanted people to be able to query the web the way you query a database. "show me all the widgets on sale in urbana for less than $20." Like that.#
It never happened for the same reason the two-way hyperlinks didn't, it required cooperation. You couldn't just throw together a demo in an afternoon as a fun side project like you could with the web (I speak from experience, my first success with the web took five freaking minutes). #
Now when Google or some other browser maker integrates ChatGPT-like functionality in their browser, as a side-effect, you will get TBL's Semantic Web. It won't require any cooperation and that's why it will work.#
You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)