Abstract. Facet browsing has become popular as a user friendly interface to data repositories. We extend facet browsing of Semantic Web data in five ways. First, users are able to select and navigate through facets of resources of any type and to make selections based on properties of other, semantically related, types. We address a disadvantage of hierarchy-based navigation by adding a keyword search interface with semantic autocompletion. The interface of our browser, /facet, allows the inclusion of facet-specific display options that go beyond the hierarchical navigation that characterizes current facet browsing. Finally, the browser works on any RDFS dataset without any additional configuration. Facet browser interfaces provide a convenient and user-friendly way to navigate through a wide range of data collections [1] [2] [3] . An individual facet highlights a dimension of the underlying data. Often, the values of this dimension are hierarchically structured. By visualizing and navigating this hierarchy in the user interface, the user is able to specify constraints on the items selected from the repository. By combining constraints from multiple facets, a user is able to specify relatively complex queries through an intuitive Web navigation interface, while avoiding dead ends containing zero results. Browse any type of resource. Traditional facet browsers assume a fixed set of facets to select and navigate through relatively homogeneous data. On the heterogeneous semantic web this approach falls short, because typical datasets are too diverse to use a single set of facets. In /facet we associate a set of appropriate facets to each type. A natural and convenient way to achieve this functionality is by regarding the rdf:type property as "just" another facet. The facet applies to all resources and the values from its range are typically organized by the rdfs:subclassOf hierarchy, allowing navigation just as for any other facet. Since the semantics of this facet is derived directly from that of rdfs:type, by making a selection, users indicate the type of resource they are interested in. This constraint automatically selects which other facets are also active. Query across resource types. Typical semantic web collections contain rich and extensive background knowledge. As a result, users expect to be able to This work has also been submitted as a full paper to the ISWC research track.
/facet REF adopts a navigational model or facet browsing approach where a user can navigate to heterogeneous resources by making selections on the properties of other semantically related types.
/facet: A Browser for Heterogeneous Semantic Web Repositories
International Semantic Web Conference
Computer Science