Metaweb maintains an open database of things in the world called Freebase. It's a collection of collaborative knowledge from many different sources. Freebase set out to create a global resource for people and machines to access common information. Now Google will leverage it for internal use to help searchers answer questions.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Competing with Bing

This acquisition is about creating more structure around the way Google presents content on search-results pages, according to Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. All the search engines have their version of "one box" or "smart answers," Sterling noted, and Yahoo and Bing have done more than Google in this area.

"Metaweb gives Google technology and personnel to pull together disparate content from many sources into a more coherent presentation around a concept, place, personality and so on. It also gives Google Freebase, an open database of content that it can further develop as part of the overall plan to present richer information in search," Sterling said.

"Google will not be able to retain its dominant position in the market over time if it continues to simply present lists of links," he added. "The company's acquisition of Metaweb signals it wants to provide more structure and depth to the information it offers users."

Freebase Plans

Jack Menzel, director of product management for Google, said with efforts like rich snippets and the search-answers feature, Google is just beginning to apply its understanding of the web to make search better. He pointed to examples such as typing "Barack Obama birthday" in the search box and seeing the answer at the top of the page.

Menzel offered another example of typing in "events in San Jose" and seeing a list of specific events and dates. He said Google can offer this kind of experience because the company has technology that understands facts about real people and real events. But what about more difficult questions, such as "colleges on the west coast with tuition under $30,000" or "actors over 40 who have won at least one Oscar"? Google thinks Metaweb will help it answer those, too.

Google said it will keep Freebase up and running, but leverage the database to better understand the relationships between real-world entities more quickly. Freebase includes more than 12 million things, including movies, books, TV shows, celebrities, locations and companies. Google plans to further develop Freebase and hopes other web companies use and contribute to the data