Metaweb

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 was co-founded by Danny Hillis, Veda Hlubinka-Cook and John Giannandrea in 2005.[2]

This article is about the company Metaweb Technologies. For the defunct Quicksilver Wiki, previously known as The Metaweb, see Neal Stephenson.
Metaweb Technologies, Inc.
Private
IndustryData management
Fateacquired
(by Google in July, 2010)
FoundedJuly 2005 (2005-07)
FounderDanny Hillis, Veda Hlubinka-Cook
Defunct16 July 2010 
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
United States
Key people
Kurt Bollacker, chief scientist
Danny Hillis, chairman
Thomas Layton, CEO[1]
Veda Hlubinka-Cook, EVP, product development
John Giannandrea, CTO
ProductsFreebase — an online database
Websitewww.metaweb.com

Metaweb was acquired by Google in 2010.[3] Google shut down Freebase in 2016, transferring all its data to Wikidata.[4] [5]

Funding

On March 14, 2006, Metaweb received $15 million in funding. Investors included Benchmark Capital, Millennium Technology Ventures, and Omidyar Network.[6] On January 15, 2008, Metaweb announced a $42.5 million Series B round led by Goldman Sachs and Benchmark Capital.[7]

Kevin Harvey of Benchmark Capital was a member of Metaweb's board of directors.

Acquisition

On July 16, 2010, Google acquired Metaweb for an undisclosed sum.[8]

gollark: Your final project can be a very slow edit distance lookup thing?
gollark: It's hard to make something which is simple, nice, recognisable at small sizes, and not already in use, really.
gollark: Website and profile picture and whatever else.
gollark: I was considering designing a personal logo I could use for my website but never came up with anything I liked.
gollark: All alternate universe GTech™ banking subdivisions, superlogarithms, multiplications, etc. are the same entity.

References
  1. Metaweb announces hiring of Thomas Layton, CEO Archived 2008-02-20 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Markoff, John (2007-03-09). "Start-Up Aims for Database to Automate Web Searching". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  3. "Metaweb joins Google" (Press release). Metaweb. 2010-07-16. Archived from the original on 2012-05-30. Retrieved 2010-07-16.
  4. Douglas, Jason (December 16, 2014). "Announcement: From Freebase to Wikidata". Freebase Discuss. Google Groups. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  5. "So long and thanks for all the data!". 2 May 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  6. "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.
  7. Metaweb Raises $42.5 Million led by Goldman Sachs and Benchmark Capital Archived 2008-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (company press release)
  8. Deeper Understanding with Metaweb (company press release)
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