Factual is a platform where anyone can share and mash open data on any subject. For example, you might find a directory of California restaurants, a database of endocrinologists, or a list of American Idol finalists. We provide smart tools to help the community build and maintain a trusted source of structured data. And this data can be used through widgets and APIs to help application developers and content publishers be more innovative and productive.
Often, data is difficult to find and access, inaccurate, and sometimes expensive. Information seekers are often overwhelmed with too many, often contradictory sources or frustrated by too few. Today, access to clean and reliable structured data is still a headache.
Factual was founded to provide open access to better structured data. And that means developers can build more innovative apps, publishers can access high-quality content, and ultimately, everyone, can make better decisions. More specifically, we offer:
An open data repository. We think a good route to low or zero cost and high quality data is the open data model. By making data open to access (read) so that developers can create valuable new applications , and by making the data open for opinion, comment, and debate (write) - we hope to catalyze support for certain data verticals.
Collaborative tools. We help communities collaborate real-time on open data projects, whether by manually adding a single value or uploading an entire dataset.
Data accountability. For each fact, we store user inputs, sources, citations -- basically a fully documented (and computable) history.
Data sourcing and improvement. Our methods include capturing existing non-proprietary data, user and community contributions, content partnerships, and sophisticated data improvement tools that algorithmically discover, mine, and merge data.
Factual was founded in 2007 by Gil Elbaz, co-founder of Applied Semantics (AdSense), which was acquired by Google in 2003. Gil has had a lifelong passion for organizing and structuring information, and building smart tools which can better make sense of data. Along with founding engineers, Tim Chklovski and Myron Ahn, Factual was built on the idea that it would be a better world if more decisions were data-driven. So we set out to develop an open data platform and community in an effort to maximize data accuracy, transparency and availability.
Other fellow data lovers who are helping to guide this ambitious project are Eva Ho, an ex-Googler and ASI-er, Bill Michels, GM of Yahoo BOSS and Russell Fine, co-founder of http://youbet.com/
We are also honored to have Esther Dyson join our board of advisors. She is a world-renowned writer, forecaster and investor in emerging technologies, emerging companies and emerging markets.
See full list of Factual people:
Internally we strive to build a company based on a culture of innovation, impact, and transparency, and we aim for our products to promote these ideals externally as well. If you want join us to help with our ambitious goals, please see our Jobs page.
Or if you have any feedback as you use Factual, please send an email.