Google Acquires Metaweb – Smarter Searches?

Think Google searches need to get smarter? Google sure does and if you didn’t already know, Google just recently acquired Metaweb. Metaweb is a successful and popular semantic search start-up and it will help make Google’s searches a lot more efficient than they already are. Although Google has recently acquired the company, exact details regarding the deal have not yet been shared publicly.

Metaweb actually develops Freebase as well as semantic data storage for the web. Freebase is an open database that is quite massive and collaboratively edited and full of cross-linked data. The developers of Metaweb created it with the intention of building the ‘semantic web’, which is perhaps the way of the Internet’s future. It actually allows anyone, anywhere, to contribute towards content on the web, in addition to how the structure, copy, search, and dates are used within it.

You may be thinking, “What’s the use? We already have Wikipedia.” Well, that’s where you’re wrong. Wikipedia is arranged by articles, like an encyclopedia or almanac, whereas Freebase works like an organized database which can be easily read by both people and software.

Obviously, with the acquisition of Metaweb, Google is looking to increase its existing search offerings. Simply stated, Metaweb is going to allow Google to revolutionize the surfing experience. As planned, Freebase will continue to be an open and free database, but Google will continue to develop it, and plans on increasing the frequency of downloadable database dumps to weekly – up from quarterly.

Source – techcrunch.com