Starting 05/16/2012 and rolling out to all data centers this week, Google has released search result update that is a change from Google being an “information agent” to a “knowledge agent”.
Basically if you type in a query like “Rangers” (which could mean a solder, a New York based hockey team or a park keeper), and a new information window will appear on the right side of your search results asking you which entity you meant. Select one of the options and your results will be updated based on your selection.
The Knowledge Graph allows you to search for objects, people, things or places that Google is familiar with such as locations, famous people, history, sport, architecture, geography, movies, art, poetry, astrology, astronomy, works of art and more.
Google is going to roll out the new feature slowly, but some users should begin seeing the feature this week. In practical terms, what’s going to happen when you search on Google is that you’ll see a separate “knowledge panel” on the right side of your regular search results that presents information about whatever your searching for.
According to Google, its search engine now covers over 500 million topics and is familiar with over 3.5 billion facts and relationship between different objects. Google crawls more than publicly available sources like Wikipedia and Guinness Book of world records. Google knowledge graph digs at a much larger scale because they are focused on comprehensive results and it’s based on what Google users search for, and what Google finds out on the web.
Knowledge Graph helps Google better understand your query in order for Google to summarize relevant content around that topic, including facts, dates you’re likely to need for your search.
For example, if you’re looking for a scientist, you’ll see date of birth, career information, scientific achievements, education and family information.
Google Knowledge Graph Summary:
- “Knowledge Graph” is a term coined by Google for how it is building relationships between different people, places and things and report facts about these entities. Presented on the right side of the SEO results, it does not interfere with “regular” search results.
- Google picks out the facts for each object that are most sought in relation to that object (similar to their auto complete suggestions).
- Each knowledge panel has a “People also search for” area at the bottom which lists related people, places or things. Again, the relationships are determined by looking at search data.
