Metaweb Technologies, Inc. was a United States company based in San Francisco that developed Freebase

Freebase (database)

Freebase is a large collaborative knowledge base consisting of metadata composed mainly by its community members. It is an online collection of structured data harvested from many sources, including individual 'wiki' contributions. Freebase aims to create a global resource which allows people to...

, described as an "open, shared database of the world's knowledge". The company was founded by Danny Hillis in July, 2005, and operated in stealth mode

Stealth mode

In business, stealth mode is a company's temporary state of secretiveness, usually undertaken in order to avoid alerting competitors to a pending product launch or other business initiative...

 until 2007. Metaweb was acquired by Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

 in July, 2010. 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

Benchmark Capital

Benchmark Capital is a venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of some very successful startups. In 1997, the firm invested $6.7 million in eBay, which became worth more than $5 billion by the spring of 1999. Other high-profile investments include Ariba, Juniper Networks, Red...

, Millennium Technology Ventures, and Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network is a philanthrocapitalist investment firm established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $290 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual...

. Kevin Harvey

Kevin Harvey

Kevin Harvey is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is currently playing for the Rapid City Rush in the Central Hockey League . He was selected by the Calgary Flames in the 9th round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.-External links:...

 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

Goldman Sachs

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...

 and Benchmark Capital.

See also

• Radar Networks
  Radar Networks
  Radar Networks is a San Francisco based company developing semantic web applications for the general public. The company was founded in 2003 by Nova Spivack and Kristinn R. Thórisson .- History :...
  
   — developers of semantic web applications for the general public
• DBpedia
  DBpedia
  DBpedia is a project aiming to extract structured content from the information created as part of the Wikipedia project. This structured information is then made available on the World Wide Web. DBpedia allows users to query relationships and properties associated with Wikipedia resources,...
  
   - community effort to extract semantic information from Wikipedia
• Web 2.0
  Web 2.0
  The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
  
  
• Semantic Web
  Semantic Web
  The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium that promotes common formats for data on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of...
  
  

External links

• Metaweb Technologies, Inc. — company homepage
• Freebase — Metaweb's online database
• Freebase Blog