Facebook, Google to Battle Over Smarter Web?

Google takes a step today toward locking horns with Facebook over creating a smarter Web. The Sultan of Search announced it has acquired Metaweb, a fledgling outfit that's been working on packaging information on the Internet so it can be searched and connected in more meaningful ways than nests of links.

He went on to say, "The web isn't merely words -- it's information about things in the real world, and understanding the relationships between real-world entities can help us deliver relevant information more quickly."

"And," she adds, "because Facebook has the 'like' data recording the preferences of its 500 millions users, it would be in the best position to harness the metadata to create a compelling search product."

Facebook has responded to Google’s recent data blockade by effectively going around the barrier, according to a report today. Last week, Google changed the terms of use for its contacts API, which allows third-party services to pull the info from your Gmail address book automatically, and said that this would only be allowed if other services did the same — and the company has made it crystal clear that this was aimed directly at Facebook, which doesn’t provide that ability. Now Facebook is apparently using Google’s own contact-download feature to get around this blockage.