How does default describe mode work? The default describe mode works only if subject has a type/class. To get any anonymous subject described CBD mode should be used: $ curl -i -L -H "Accept: application/rdf+xml" http://lod.openlinksw.com/describe/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mpii.de%2Fyago%2Fresource%2FEddie%255FMurphy HTTP/1.1 303 See Other Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:24:36 GMT Server: Virtuoso/06.02.3129 (Linux) x86_64-generic-linux-glibc25-64 VDB Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Accept-Ranges: bytes TCN: choice Vary: negotiate,accept,Accept-Encoding Location: http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql?query=%20DESCRIBE%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.mpii.de%2Fyago%2Fresource%2FEddie%255FMurphy%3E&format=application% 2Frdf%2Bxml Content-Length: 0 HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:24:37 GMT Server: Virtuoso/06.02.3129 (Linux) x86_64-generic-linux-glibc25-64 VDB Accept-Ranges: bytes Content-Type: application/rdf+xml; charset=UTF-8 Content-Length: 467967 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"> <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://www.mpii.de/yago/resource/MTV%5FMovie%5FAward%5Ffor%5FBest%5FComedic%5FPerformance"><n0pred:hasInternalWikipediaLinkTo xmlns:n0pred="http://www.mpii.de/yago/resource/" rdf:resource="http://www.mpii.de/yago/resource/Eddie%5FMurphy"/></rdf:Description> <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://www.mpii.de/yago/resource/#fact_23536547421"><rdf:subject rdf:resource="http://www.mpii.de/yago/resource/Eddie%5FMurphy"/></rdf:Description> <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://www.mpii.de/yago/resource/#fact_23536896725"><rdf:object rdf:resource="http://www.mpii.de/yago/resource/Eddie%5FMurphy"/></rdf:Description> ... Related Virtuoso Tips and Tricks Collection