Difference between rdf:seeAlso and rdfs:seeAlso

Question

What is the difference between rdf:seeAlso and rdfs:seeAlso?

When I can use rdf:seeAlso and when I can use rdfs:seeAlso?

Can you do any examples?

Answer 1

First, note that rdf and rdfs are prefixes commonly used to reference the RDF syntax and RDF schema vocabularies respectively. The rdf is typically used for http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#, so that rdf:seeAlso would expand to http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#seeAlso. However, if you follow the vocabulary reference, you won't find a term defined for seeAlso. The RDF syntax is used for basic types such as rdf:type, rdf:XMLLiteral, and rdf:langString. the RDF Schema vocabulary is typically bound to the rdfs prefix, and is at http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#. It is mostly used to define terms useful in performing simple reasoning over RDF graphs, such as rdfs:subClassOf, rdfs:domain, and rdfs:range.

In reality, the terms defined between the two vocabularies end up being in arbitrary locations, and on retrospect, there should have probably been just a single vocabulary definition and a more easily understood location (such as http://www.w3.org/ns/rdf#), but too late for that now.

Why use rdfs:seeAlso is unclear. The description says "Further information about the subject resource.", but there's rules defined for how to use it. In Linked Data, it can be used to do just what it says, and a hypothetical linked data client might dereference IRI values of rdfs:seeAlso to find out more information that might be useful.

You can find out more in the RDF Concepts document and other publications of the RDF Working Group.