Freebase - Centralized control of the distributed web?
There is a buzz about the launch of Freebase by Metaweb technologies on the web at the moment.
From the New York Times:
Are we not trying to create a distributed, democratic and user-centric reality where the right of self-expression trumps data silos?
So why would we all be rushing to contain all data in a single database?
Wouldn't it be a more effective solution to build a search engine that could aggregate content across the web by extracting and indexing it in a structured way. Something that can look for Microformats as well as try to extract structured data from unstructured pages using semantic analysis (similar to AdaptiveBlue).
It could even offer its index/database via APIs.
The difference with this scenario, though, is that we don't all have to play nice with a single database/API - they have to play nice with us. This is about shifting power from the few, to the many after all.
It seems to me to attempt otherwise is moving in the wrong direction.
Am I missing something here? Let me know what you think...
From the New York Times:
"The idea of a centralized database storing all of the world’s digital information is a fundamental shift away from today’s World Wide Web, which is akin to a library of linked digital documents stored separately on millions of computers where search engines serve as the equivalent of a card catalog."Is it just me or does this seem completely antithetical to the entire point of the Web in general and the Web 2.0 philosophy specifically?
Are we not trying to create a distributed, democratic and user-centric reality where the right of self-expression trumps data silos?
So why would we all be rushing to contain all data in a single database?
Wouldn't it be a more effective solution to build a search engine that could aggregate content across the web by extracting and indexing it in a structured way. Something that can look for Microformats as well as try to extract structured data from unstructured pages using semantic analysis (similar to AdaptiveBlue).
It could even offer its index/database via APIs.
The difference with this scenario, though, is that we don't all have to play nice with a single database/API - they have to play nice with us. This is about shifting power from the few, to the many after all.
It seems to me to attempt otherwise is moving in the wrong direction.
Am I missing something here? Let me know what you think...
Labels: aggregation, apis, Media 2.0, Microformats, new york times, search, Semantic Web, silos, vast, web 2.0
4 Comments:
This projects feels like it is from the school of "just because I can I will". Fully agree Chris decentralisation and distribution is the way the web is going.
This is tricky. I'm building a product that could potentially "play nice" with something like Freebase, and I have to figure out whether I invest my time (and resources) into working with them. Microformats are very appealing for the reasons you outline -- they are decentralized and distributed, and don't give the power to one central, semantic power-giver.
I don't like the idea of doing business with a company that has the potential to control a "database of everything", but then again, tapping into their API could potentially make my product much more rich. I'm not sure what to do.
@Sam - I think this is the case. It's a shame that a number of key people are backing it when there are more worthy causes to hype and pursue.
@Steve - I wouldn't want to tell you which business bet to make. That's a personal decision.
I know the idea of tapping into a 'database of everything' sounds appealing - but consider the Web is already a database of everything. It just isn't structured very well.
There are plenty of people working on structuring it (including Google I'd imagine - if they could stop making Office apps for half a second).
But adding structure by trying to store it all in one place is not how the Internet works.
I'm all for a Giant Database of All Things, with a few conditions.
It should be encrypted and distributed.
It has a growing API.
It's 100x more useful than GoogleBase.
I've worked on plans for a discovery visualization tools for such a database for a long time and wholeheartedly welcome Freebase.
If you're not going to keep your data in one type of structure, where are you going to keep it? Where is your mom going to keep it, because she doesn't care about microformats and the like.
Freebase will raise a lot of privacy issues that we all talked about with GoogleBase, I hope decisions will be made early on about how and where the data are stored that don't hinder innovation.
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