Update March 2014: It has been over a year since I wrote this post. Just wanted to say that we are keeping this post alive for historical purposes only. We have learned so much more about the Knowledge Graph since last year, and continue to learn more every day. In addition, a lot of the information contained herein is now considered inaccurate.
We’ve been kind of obsessed with Knowledge Graph this week ever since Google let us into their club. A lot of clients have been asking us “how can we do that” and we’ve been engaging in a lot of discussions with people about Knowledge Graph etc and how it can be manipulated etc. So we thought we would do a show and tell of different SERPs and which companies had Knowledge Graph and which ones didn’t, until we ran across an interview with Larry Page (Google CEO) where he stated:
““We’re still in the early stages,” Page said on Google’s fourth-quarter 2012 earnings call…We’re still at 1 percent of where we should be.”
If you don’t know by now, Knowledge Graph is Google’s way of graphically providing an “answer” to a related query. Google has done this by putting together a massive network of media consisting of almost 600 million “objects” and 15 billion facts, as well as how each and every one of those facts and objects correlate to a search query.
Knowledge Graph is not just a graphical representation of that entity, it is also a representation of the correlation between searches and objects. Mr. Page commented when asked about the importance of Knowledge Graph, “getting people correct answers is really important for our business…” and was “hard work.”
Here are a few screenshots that we’ve taken this evening (January 30, 2013) and some notes regarding them:
People, particularly historical figures, politicians, celebrities are all entering Knowledge Graph arena. You will typically see the top portion of the Knowledge Graph dedicated to the top image searches, some short facts grabbed from Wikipedia, and then some variable information below.
The next type of Knowledge Graphing we are seeing are companies. While a ton of companies are still not yet listed (Microsoft, Target, etc), we are seeing a ton of other companies getting their slot reserved in Knowledge Graph Wonderland including yours truly. Notice all the social data pulled, citation data, maps data. Coincidentally this all started when we revved up our Google+ presence and verified our listing.
Sorry Microsoft, no soup for you:
Other companies such as Acer, have sponsored ads featured above the Knowledge Graph (technically it might still be part of the Knowledge Graph. I am sure this will continue to be a trend as time goes on for Shopping related SERPs:
While queries such as “Target” show absolutely nothing, other queries such as “Home Depot” show a Knowledge Graph with a Google Map and G+ data. I am sure this will continue to be the trend for locations nearby IP addresses:
Google gave its own “Android” query a modest Knowledge graph that pulled data from its Google+ page as well as a news result from 7 hours ago:
In November of 2012, Google began rolling out the ability to inject facts about popular drugs such as “Oxycodone” into search results. This information is typically based on the chemical name, for instance you will see a result for “oxycodone” but probably not “Roxycodone” but this is not true in all cases.
Other search results, Google is not too sure what to do so it might offer related and similar search results depending on what that is. We noticed this when we ran a search query for “Brother” but were then offered a few other suggestions.
So there you have it. There are still tons of questions out there about Google Knowledge Graph such as:
1. How exactly can I get my business or entity into Knowledge Graph?
2. What Happens if there are duplicate search results?
3. What is going to happen with synonyms?
4. Will someone try to pull the trademark or copyright card with Knowledge Graph?
Mind still not blown? Check out your favorite celebs “bacon number” which is Google’s way of measuring the degree of separation between an actor and Kevin Bacon. Simply do “actor bacon number” and your result will appear below the search.
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