Datafiniti: Is a Successful Data Search Engine Possible?
November 1, 2011
A Houston-based startup is looking to change the world of open source search and public data, a difficult yet honorable task.
Datafiniti is taking on the challenge, which proves to be especially troublesome for users who don’t know data is available and don’t know how to work the programs to get to the information they want and need. Datafiniti hopes to make the task as simple as a basic Google search for Web sites.
The web-based service requires SQL parameters to be entered into a search box. Once users get the information they need, they can use the API in their own applications or export it.
GigaOM’s article “Datafiniti Builds a Web scale Search Engine for Data,” tells us more about the service. We learned:
The service is pretty clearly targeted at developers wanting to build data-centric web applications and, as founder and CEO Shion Deysarkar explained to me, Datafiniti tries to differentiate itself with the aforementioned API. Users get just one API that offers up access to multiple data types, which contrasts with the traditional mash up experience of using a different API for each data source. As of a couple of weeks ago, Deysarkar told me Datafiniti consisted of about 15 million records, but it’s constantly growing, and his goal is to index ‘any and all structured data on the Web.’
Our opinion? This is a good idea. But can the project be sustained? The US government cut back on data.gov, and Google is ridding itself of their open source search next year. Perhaps a more user-friendly interface will help.
Andrea Hayden, November 1, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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