Got Ads?
6/06/2007
  What is Freebase?

Freebase is like a combination of Google Base and Wikipedia.

It wants to be a big structured open database. If you realize it's called Free Base, and relate that to a free & open version of Google Base, you get most of the point (assuming you are one of the .00003% of web users who have ever heard of Google Base).

But Freebase also has a presentation layer like Wikipedia, with destination pages that can be edited. It has nice tools for version control and adding semantic data to each page.

Finally, Freebase has an API -- as does Google Base. There's a query language called MQL ("Meta Query Language"), and a HTML templating engine based on javascript called "mjt". So it could be good fodder for mash-ups & splogs. It could be spammed eventually as well (like Base and Wikipedia).

However, I think Freebase faces some key obstacles in gaining mind-share:

Freebase is an exploratory semantic web blob. I'm personally of the Clay Shirky school when it comes to semantic web stuff. I.e. it's not really good at anything, and it's a research problem to determine if it ever will be. The people that get excited about this stuff fall into a small subset of the .00003% who know what Google Base is.

In other words, Freebase has no killer-app which would compel a web user to use it. The ones it could eventually have were taken by someone else first.

With Danny Hillis as a backer of the parent company (MetaWeb), Freebase will probably end up as a good playground for the Semantic Web-o-philes out there.

 




<< Home

Subscribe to GotAds?



Links



Recent Posts

What is Freebase?


Archives

February 2005 /  March 2005 /  April 2005 /  May 2005 /  June 2005 /  July 2005 /  August 2005 /  September 2005 /  October 2005 /  November 2005 /  December 2005 /  January 2006 /  February 2006 /  March 2006 /  April 2006 /  May 2006 /  June 2006 /  July 2006 /  August 2006 /  September 2006 /  October 2006 /  November 2006 /  December 2006 /  January 2007 /  February 2007 /  March 2007 /  April 2007 /  May 2007 /  June 2007 /  July 2007 /  August 2007 /  September 2007 /  October 2007 /  November 2007 /  December 2007 /  January 2008 /  February 2008 /  March 2008 /  April 2008 /  May 2008 /  June 2008 /  July 2008 /  August 2008 /  September 2008 /  November 2008 /  December 2008 /  January 2009 /  March 2009 /