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Danny Hillis and his start-up company, Metaweb Technologies, are trying to change the Internet. Hillis is trying to create a new way that the world’s digital information is stored. In his vision, the internet would be a public centralized database that would allow computers to automate many of the services that are now performed manually via web browsers. The database, called Freebase, would store its information in such a way that computers would be able to make relationships between the information.

Freebase and the other efforts of Hillis and Metaweb Technologies focuses in on the same question that was brought up in class: exactly what is the size and scope of the internet? Furthermore, it begs to examine how information is able to stored despite an ever-changing digital world that is increasingly dynamic. As the NY Times article points out, “In its ambitions, Freebase has some similarities to Google — which has asserted that its mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. But its approach sets it apart.”

Critically analyzing Freebase using our discussion from class of the size and scope of the web, I am left with key concerns that cast shadows of doubts on Freebase. I am curious to know exactly how Freebase will expand and handle dynamic features. I want to know what Freebase will do with the “dark matter” of the internet that we’ve estimated to store enormous quantities of sensitive information. If Freebase is able to address these and other concerns, then maybe this metaweb approach to storing digital information can work. But would it be worth it? In other words, Freebase features would really have to dazzle users to switch from using the web as they know it.