The Semantic Web (BERNERS-LEE; HENDLER; LASSILA, 2001) is an extension of the traditional Web through technologies that facilitate the understanding of human language by machines. XML (eXtensible Markup Language), RDF (Resource Definition Framework) and OWL (Web Ontology Language) are used to represent information in the Semantic Web, henceforth SW, and make it interoperable between applications, with OWL being the language with the greater potential of knowledge representativeness and XML the language with less power of information.

The elements of the OWL language extend the elements of the RDF language, which in turn extend the elements of the XML language. Next, the layers of SW architecture are presented neatly beginning with the most abstract.

It is easier to understand how the Semantic Web extends the traditional Web by visualizing this architecture in seven layers. The RDF layer has XML triples formed by subject, predicate and object capable of representing the semantics of the Web information. The OWL language increases the power of this semantic representation, serving to instantiate ontologies in the Web. The ontological layer enhances the understanding of information from the internet by computers.