SPARQL is a new, format-independent query technology

More and more powerful computers combined with the Internet allow for the creation of larger and larger databases. Now, larger and larger databases require ever-more powerful query technologies. The most recent addition is

SPARQL query technology, pronounced “sparkle,” which is the key standard for opening up data on the Semantic Web. Last time we counted there were already fourteen known implementations of SPARQL, many of which are open source. Note that many successful query languages exist, including standards such as SQL and XQuery, but they were primarily designed for queries limited to a single product, format, type of information, or local data store. Traditionally, it has been necessary to formulate the same high-level query differently depending on application or the specific arrangement chosen for the relational database. When querying multiple data sources it has been necessary to write logic to merge the results. These limitations have imposed higher developer costs and created barriers to incorporating new data sources.

The goal of the Semantic Web is to enable people to share, merge, and reuse data globally. SPARQL is designed for use at the scale of the Web, and thus enables queries over distributed data sources, independent of format. Creating a single query across diverse data stores is easier than having to create multiple queries. Because SPARQL has no tie to a specific database format, it can be used to take advantage of Web 2.0 data and mash it up with other Semantic Web resources. Furthermore, because disparate data sources may not have the same ‘shape’ or share the same properties, SPARQL is designed to query non-uniform data.

See a list of implementation of SPARQL here.