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 ofendocrinologists, or a list of American Idol finalists.  Smart tools  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, factual offers:

An open data repository. 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) – it’ll be possible to catalyze support for certain data verticals.
Collaborative tools. Factual helps 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, you can store user inputs, sources, citations — basically a fully documented (and computable) history.
Data sourcing and improvement. The 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.