Metaweb
Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Data management |
Fate |
acquired (by Google in July, 2010) |
Founded | 2005 |
Founder(s) | Danny Hillis, Robert Cook |
Headquarters | San Francisco, California, USA |
Key people |
Kurt Bollacker, chief scientist Danny Hillis, chairman Thomas Layton, CEO[1] Robert Cook, EVP, product development John Giannandrea, CTO |
Products | Freebase — an online database |
Website | www.metaweb.com |
Metaweb Technologies, Inc. was a San Francisco-based company that developed Freebase, described as an "open, shared database of the world's knowledge". The company, founded by Danny Hillis in 2005, was acquired by Google in 2010.[2] Although Metaweb no longer exists as a separate corporate entity, Freebase and its associated website freebase.com continue to be provided as an open database under Metaweb's original CC-BY licensing terms.
Funding
On March 14, 2006, Metaweb received $15 million in funding. Investors included: Benchmark Capital, Millennium Technology Ventures, and Omidyar Network.[3] Kevin Harvey of Benchmark Capital is a member of Metaweb's board of directors. On January 15, 2008, Metaweb announced a $42.5 million Series B round led by Goldman Sachs and Benchmark Capital.[4]
Acquisition
On July 16, 2010, Google acquired Metaweb for an undisclosed sum.[5]
See also
- Radar Networks — developers of semantic web applications for the general public
- DBpedia - community effort to extract semantic information from Wikipedia
- Web 2.0
- Semantic Web
References
- ↑ Metaweb announces hiring of Thomas Layton, CEO
- ↑ "Metaweb joins Google" (Press release). Metaweb. 2010-07-16. Retrieved 2010-07-16.
- ↑ "Metaweb Technologies, Inc. Receives $15 Million of Financing From Benchmark Capital, Millennium Technology Ventures and Omidyar Network" (Press release). Benchmark Capital. 2006-03-13. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
- ↑ Metaweb Raises $42.5 Million led by Goldman Sachs and Benchmark Capital (company press release)
- ↑ Deeper Understanding with Metaweb (company press release)
External links
- Metaweb Technologies, Inc. — company homepage
- Freebase — Metaweb's online database
- Freebase Blog