Google Acquires Metaweb

Google announced in its blog that it acquired Metaweb, a San Francisco based company that has built a open database (Freebase) of over 12 million things in the world. Its open database contains information on movies, books, TV shows, celebrities, locations, companies and more. Google said the acquisition of Metaweb will help to understand search queries deeper will help “improve search and make the web richer and more meaningful for everyone”.

Google has been constantly improving its search capabilities. For example, if we search “barack obama birthday”, in addition to providing top results for the query Google can now understand the question give direct answer at the top. Google says it could offer this kind of search ” because we understand facts about real people and real events out in the world”.

However, if one searches a more complex query looking “colleges on the west coast with tuition under $30,000″, Google can not answer the question. With the acquisition of MetaWeb, Google will be able to answer such hard questions.

Google said it is excited at the possibilities offered by MetWeb’s open data base, in addition to working on search. Google said

Google and Metaweb plan to maintain Freebase as a free and open database for the world. Better yet, we plan to contribute to and further develop Freebase and would be delighted if other web companies use and contribute to the data. We believe that by improving Freebase, it will be a tremendous resource to make the web richer for everyone. And to the extent the web becomes a better place, this is good for webmasters and good for users.

Check the YouTube video below to learn more about Metaweb’s technology.

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