In a move that will potentially bring about an improvement in Internet search giant Google's discovery and search of "things" on the Web, the company Friday announced that it had acquired MetaWeb - a startup that essentially maintains an open database of things in the world.

Metaweb has chiefly been working on packaging information on the Internet in such a manner that it can be searched and connected in an increasingly more meaningful way than nests of links.

While the financial terms of the Google-MetaWeb deal remain undisclosed, Google revealed that it also intends maintaining an open database of over 12 million things that draw contributions from other Web companies.

Noting that Google has always been endeavoring to improve search by deepening its understanding of queries and web pages, Jack Menzel, Google's director of product management for Google, said that the Google-MetaWeb deal will enable the companies to work together "to improve search and make the web richer and more meaningful for everyone."

Adding that Google - like Yahoo and Microsoft Bing - provides search results as well as returns actual answers, without forcing users into an additional click for accessing another page with the actual data, Menzel said: "With efforts like rich snippets and the search answers feature, we're just beginning to apply our understanding of the web to make search better."