Editing Applied Minds (section)

==History and culture==
Bran Ferren and Danny Hillis worked together at [[Walt Disney Imagineering]], where Ferren was president of research & development and creative technology and Hillis his vice president,<ref name=":2" /> when they decided to start a new venture that would serve wider industries beyond entertainment.<ref name=":2" /> When the pair left to start Applied Minds in 2000, they rented the new company's first warehouse space from Disney.<ref name=":0" />

Applied Minds "quickly acquired a reputation as a sort of [[Arms industry|military-industrial]] toy shop."<ref name=":0" /> The culture at the company has been described as "laid back, more [[Startup company|startup]] than military, with employees in casual clothes and readily available snacks."<ref name=":1" /> According to Applied Minds co-founder and chief creative officer Ferren, potential projects are evaluated on the basis of three criteria: "design and technical excellence, making the world a better place, and making more money than [the company] spends."<ref name=":1" /> Ferren "takes a unique approach to building his team" by likening the process to casting roles for "engineers, designers, military strategists, and rocket scientists."<ref name=":1" />
 
In 2005, the team building a new centralized database to improve Internet searches spun off from Applied Minds to create a separate company called [[Metaweb]] Technologies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Deeper understanding with Metaweb |url=https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/deeper-understanding-with-metaweb.html |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=Official Google Blog |language=en}}</ref> Metaweb's database, [[Freebase (database)|Freebase]], structured information as millions of related entities, so that software could generate shorter, more relevant responses to users' search queries.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Markoff |first=John |date=March 9, 2007 |title=Start-Up Aims for Database to Automate Web Searching |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/technology/09data.html |access-date=July 8, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> [[Google]] acquired Metaweb in 2010 and stated part of the acquisition was to improve search and make the web richer and more meaningful for everyone.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Rao |first=Leena |date=July 16, 2010 |title=Google Acquires Metaweb To Make Search Smarter |url=https://techcrunch.com/2010/07/16/google-acquires-metaweb-to-make-search-smarter/ |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=NOSOWITZ |first=DAN |date=July 16, 2010 |title=Google Buys Metaweb, the One Company That Could Revolutionize Google Search |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/1671024/google-buys-metaweb-one-company-could-revolutionize-google-search}}</ref>

The firm has spun out several companies, including [[Metaweb Technologies]],<ref name=":4"/> TouchTable,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Terrain, Touch and Symbolic Tables |url=https://walkerart.org/magazine/art-com-northrop-grumman-and-audiopad |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=walkerart.org}}</ref> which specializes in interactive mapping visualizations, and Applied Proteomics, whose early-stage cancer diagnostics business was acquired by DiscernDx in 2018.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 11, 2020 |title=Applied Proteomics Sells Assets to DiscernDx for $1.85M {{!}} GenomeWeb |url=https://www.genomeweb.com/proteomics-protein-research/applied-proteomics-sells-assets-discerndx-185m |access-date=July 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200711030153/https://www.genomeweb.com/proteomics-protein-research/applied-proteomics-sells-assets-discerndx-185m |archive-date=July 11, 2020 }}</ref>

In 2014, Danny Hillis spun off a portion of the company into a venture called [[Danny Hillis#Applied Invention|Applied Invention]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Danny Hillis - Co-Founder at Applied Invention {{!}} The Org |url=https://theorg.com/org/applied-invention/org-chart/danny-hillis}}</ref>