Watson, more than a Semantic Web search engine

In this tool report, we present an overview of the Watson system, a Semantic Web search engine providing various functionalities not only to find and locate ontologies and semantic data online, but also to explore the content of these semantic documents. Beyond the simple facade of a search engine for the SemanticWeb, we show that the availability of such a component brings new possibilities in terms of developing semantic applications that exploit the content of the Semantic Web. Indeed, Watson provides a set of APIs containing high level functions for finding, exploring and querying semantic data and ontologies that have been published online. Thanks to these APIs, new applications have emerged that connect activities such as ontology construction, matching, sense disambiguation and question answering to the Semantic Web, developed by our group and others. In addition, we also describe Watson as a unprecedented research platform for the study the Semantic Web, and of formalized knowledge in general.