November 24th, 2010 
Admin
As a part of its digital strategy to become market leaders in web 3.0 technology, Google has purchased the semantic web database firm Metaweb for an undisclosed fee. The purchase means that Google now has complete access to Metaweb’s Freebase catalogue, which is described as a ‘free database of the world’s knowledge.’ With this access, Google is now hoping to improve its semantic web capabilities.
Semantic web, which is considered to be the future of the internet, holds the principal of making computers understand what a user is searching for on the internet. With this understanding of what a user is trying to find on the web, search engines that use semantic web technology will be able to ‘link content with entities’ and present the user with better tailored information. Google already uses a basic form of semantic web in its Rich Snippets technology, although only 5 percent of all websites are currently optimised for the medium.
“Working together we want to improve search and make the web richer and more meaningful for everyone,” said Jack Menzel, one of Google’s Product Management Directors, during a blog posting announcing the company’s acquisition.
Metaweb, meanwhile, has said that it will maintain business as usual despite being purchased by Google and continue to grow its Freebase directory. Google has also pledged to help add to and maintain the Freebase catalogue.
Freebase will now have its downloadable database dumps made available on a weekly rather than quarterly basis.
The new addition is likely to bolster Google’s own semantic search development. Earlier this year, the firm announcedimprovements to Google Squared, its attempt to find and extract structured data from across the web launched in 2009.
Google’sUniversal Search feature, meanwhile, which blends results from different content types such as web pages, images, videos and books, has been in development for over two years.
Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
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