While Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is cozying up to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) in preparation for the software company acquiring the internet visionary, Yahoo! still wants to be somewhat innovative. In that vein, Yahoo! has said that it wants to incorporate pieces of the "semantic web" into its search index. You know, the one that comes a long second place to Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG)search engine -- but one that is still used heavily all over the world.

The semantic web is like a second version of the "world wide web" that looks for the actual meaning of data on a given website instead of just topic relevance to a search like it stands today. The semantic web draws many more variables between web content to really produce valuable feedback to web searchers. Web indexers would need to determine "meaning" of website content instead of just "relevance."

Would this make any difference to Yahoo!?Even if the company's search engine were to give back more meaningful search results (instead of the most topical), trying to get this concept across to the average web surfer would be extremely difficult. This would not be a competitive advantage against Google (that battle has already been fought), but would give Yahoo! a different search product in a manner of speaking. That is, unless Google begins offering "semantic web" search results as well.

Yes, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.

So what's his take on the future of the Net? Well, there's a piece in the Times Online in which he sets out the next stages of the Net.

Interestingly enough, it may not include Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). According to Berners-Lee, we should be focused on something called the Semantic Web.

Huh? Simply put, it means that data is linked to all other relevant data. This would include any data, whether photos, maps, videos and so on.

It's certainly an ambitious vision. And, intuitively, it makes a lot of sense. After all, how many web services do you use – such as Facebook or Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO)? Wouldn't it be nice if somehow all these things could talk to each other?

Although, I suspect it will take a long time for this vision to be realized. But, as seen with upstart companies like Twine, there are already a variety of companies trying to do just that.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

The social web – which allows everybody to participate – got a boost this week. That is, MSNBC.com, a joint venture between Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and General Electric (NYSE: GE), agreed to buy Newsvine, a news site that allows for voting, comments and so on.

However, as the social web expands, it gets difficult to follow things. While a variety of services track blogs, there's not much in terms of following comments.

Well, that's what coComment is focused on. "Think of us as the Digg for comments," said Kristina Serafim, VP of Marketing at coComment, in a BloggingStocks interview.

And the site is growing. There are more than 550,000 users so far.

"User-generated comments about you or your company are likely to be fragmented across different sites, such as blogs, Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), and so on," said Serafim. "But with coComment, we essentially put comments into a conversation."

Yes, the site is free, although coComment has plans for monetization. "There are display ads. Or, if users don't want them, they pay a fee for an ad-free environment. We also see opportunities for using the site as a large focus group."

And with the power of social media growing, I can see where companies will want to call on coComment for some help.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.