Q: Do you have the mechanism for doing backwards chaining?  (i.e. from leaf to the root)? For example cameras sony, cameras jvc, etc instead of Sony camera, etc.

Nico Popp: A keyword is a handle to an object, not to a URL. One of the pieces of information associated with an object can be a set of keywords that describes a category. Different property for the object.  Discover the right keyword other than the name.  Names aren't global. In RealNames, the name plus the locale makes the name unique. For example, a lookup on BMW for the German locale will go to .de, and will go to .com for the US locale.

Q: All keywords you've used are trademarks, and trademarks aren't unique globally, only within a country and industry..

Nico Popp: Trademarks are unique within locale.  So, what is the user's exepectation?  McDonalds should go to the food company, even if there's McDonalds shoe store in Alabama.  Other is advertisement.  If you type something and it goes nowhere, the lookup has failed.  For example, drugs.com was for sale (for 2M).  We incorporate user exepectations.  If a company markets under a name like jobs.com, and they create a user expectation around that name, we can measure this, and set the lookup appropriately.  Second part of question. Commerical.  People refer to things.  It's about people to things, and people to people.  Keywords are user friendly.  Context of the web goes to my homepage.  Email address we can use the same thing, resources, etc.

Q: Are names only fee for service?

Nico Popp: No, very few names are currently paid for. RealNames goes to existing name holders and tells them about the statistics service and persistence, where the name is more persistent than address.  Also have a service for re-mapping a keyword to a new URL. For sony this link management is very powerful for them, allowing them to fix broken links.

Henrik Rood: Trademark law doesn't protect this.

Nico Popp: Judgement is very difficult.  We started doing it using our policy advisory board to help us make guidelines.  There ought to be a business entity that acts like a "church" to makes the decision.  We have the right to change our mind; if the user name expectation changes, we will change it. Eventually there will be an external policy setting body to separate business from policy-setting.

Bob Morgan: I'm wondering how the locale information works.  I just typed in Stanford and got back stanford.fr, and not stanford.edu.

Nico Popp:  Your browser must not have set the right locale.

Bob Morgan:  I typed it directly into your web page.

Nico Popp: Then it should have gone to Stanford University.  Sometimes there is negotiation with the nameholder to explain why their name isn't active in all contexts.

Rohit Khare: Does Stanford University have to pay to get its keyword?

Nico Popp: No.  It's all about the user expectation.

Locale stanford edu or clothing?  University?  How do you distinguish locale?  What should have happened, if the locale is not specified, it will assume us english. Stanford should go to edu. We push writing table at realtime.  Negotiations between sameholders can take much time.

Rohit Khare: Ah, it's in RealName's interest to seed its database.

Esther Dyson: It would be useful for people who want to write their representative to just type in their name.

Q: If you have a name to a server and the service name is embedded in the URL then you don't get persistence.

Nico Popp: There are no guarantees.  You can embed names to the doucment.  You can specify the writing service of that url.  It
will be useful to urls to use common name than address.  There's no guarantee in the service or one that can be context standardized.  I pick a service to a particular service.  No value because of persistence.  That persistence can go away.

Carl Hewitt: Can a company buy a name out under someone?

Nico Popp: Yes, if they meet the requirements, it can.

Rohit Khare:  What would happen if a hotel situated right outside the entrance to Grand Canyon Nat'l Park requested a keyword?

Nico Popp:  They would not be able to get it.

Larry Masinter: But, if there were, for example, two equal Grand Canyon tourist associations, which of the two will win?

Nico Popp: It depends on who's better -- What is on the object.  Is it more than a URL? Yes, there is also context which can be used to refine keyword lookup.

Marshal Moseley: Keywords start merging with links.  Keyword management, links, have you addressed this at all when they gained popularity.  How powerful is the discovery system.  It's about adding context.  Drill down the serach.  At least you can get to the keyword. The fact you can discover it easier.  Minimum expression of the ui textfield, type in text, it's easy. One you can't get the links, it will degradeback to urls, etc. Once you can't get text in there, when cognitive mappings don't work any more, keywords start merging with the traditional web navigation problem.

Larry Masinter: There are newspapers. Mercury news has as service.  National edition adds more.  Larger scope needs more information.  International scope will add more.  What do you need to say beyond the Grand Canyon?  There is a set of well known names. A newspaper can print an article about Bill Clinton without explaining who that is. It is possible to build a service that can exploit this set of names. Editorial staffs make the decision over which keywords need explanation, and which do not.  What are the noun phraess, and do those have internet resources?

Marshall Moseley: There are people at the edges (of a context) for which this doesn't work.

Larry Masinter: There are newspaper editorial staffs that decide this for news. A global keyword name service will also need an editorial staff for its keyword mappings.

Marshall Moseley: This is fine at the service level.  But at the user level, a user may have difficulty formulating the right keyword, or remembering a previously used keyword.

Don't see how that at the user level, they know what they were keywords. If they don't have it as a link.  Keywords stop becoming keywords.

Search engines.  Won't fix all the problems.  Maybe the answer will be through search.