The estimated reading time for this post is 3 minutes
Google Search is such a powerful tool that the trademark “Google” has become a verb.
Q. How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
A. I’ll Google it.
As Google has increased its dominance in the search engine field, its search features have continued to evolve. The most recent evolution is the release of Knowledge Graph, a feature that brings a new dimension to your search results.
When you search on Google, you see the results in the familiar format of a list of relevant sites with perhaps a map and some images. Knowledge Graph keeps those results, but also offers suggestions in a new right-hand column that direct you to expanded results.
For example, a Google search of “Philadelphia” brings up a list of Internet sites about the city. The Knowledge Graph shows a map of the city, geographical information, places of interest and a link to results about the movie “Philadelphia”.
If you’re interested in learning more about the movie Philadelphia, click on the link in the bottom of the right column and you will be taken to the search results for the movie.
Think of Knowledge Graph as Google trying to get to know you better, how you think and what you want from your search results. Similar to Amazon suggesting books that you might like based upon what you have read, Google Knowledge Graph makes suggestions of what else might interest you on the web. Google learns what type of information you’re looking for and tries to offer that in addition to providing its regular search results.
Here’s a video from Google explaining how Google Knowledge Graph works:
Knowledge Graph is designed to get smarter over time. As of now the feature has entries for 3.5 billion facts, with more facts being added constantly.
Not Quite Yet?
As exciting as this new feature for Google search is, you should know that the feature is being launched gradually. Knowledge Search is available right now only for English-speaking countries whose name is the United States of America. Other countries and other languages will be getting this feature in the future.
In a delicious/frustrating stroke of irony, I could not get Knowledge Search to work using my Google Chrome browser, nor would it work on Firefox or Opera. Knowledge Search did work for me however on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Apple’s Safari browsers. What I concluded was that when I am logged into my Google account connected to a Google+ account, as I was on Chrome and Firefox, Knowledge Graph doesn’t show up. When I log out of that Google account, Knowledge Graph appears. I’m thinking Google didn’t intentionally bar Google+ users from having access to Knowledge Graph but that seems to be what is happening. I predict this will be remedied very soon.
Google Knowledge Graph is also not available for every search term yet. The feature seems to work best for searches involving one or two words. Have fun playing around with it and seeing the results.
Bottom Line
Go to Google and search for a term. See if Google Knowledge Graph shows up. If not, make sure you’re only using one or two words in your search, such as “Philadelphia”. If it still doesn’t appear, log out of your Google account and see if it works. If you’re still not seeing Knowledge Graph, you may be in a country where this feature has not yet arrived.
Have you tried Knowledge Graph yet? Do you find the added column of results to be helpful? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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Hi Lizbet, thanks so much for your kind words. I’m so glad you are enjoying The Wonder of Tech. Have a fantastic weekend! 😀
Hi Carolyn
It is looking interesting with Google Knowledge Graph, but I have not been able to test it yet. Maybe it is because I am living in Denmark. Do you think that it will have any impact in traffic generation and the way we optimize our blogs for SEO?
I couldn’t see the Google Knowledge Graph either, and I’m thinking that it’s because I’m in Norway 🙂
Hi Jens
I think it is about time that Google start focusing on Scandinavian first instead of United States. After all we are 6-8 hours ahead of them 😉
Thomas and Jens, I understand that Google offered this to Scandanavian countries but that they didn’t want to be the guinea pigs to test this. They wanted the US to work out the bugs first. 😉
Hi Thomas, Excellent question about SEO. My good friend Kim Castleberry wrote an excellent article on this very topic. Check it out here: http://just-ask-kim.com/google-knowledge-graph/.
Thanks for the tip Carolyn.
She really is fast that girl 🙂 I did not hear about the change until yesterday and she already have a blog post about it. I better go over to Kim and see what she has to say about it.
Yes, Kim is amazing. I’m a big fan of hers. She really knows the ins and outs of blogging tech.
Informative post about Google Knowledge Graph, Carolyn 🙂 I’ve heard of it before but never thought of digging in it. I admit that you’ve elaborated ingredients of it very well and descriptive.
So as I see, it’s an derivative of Object Oriented approach – To make search more sensible for humans not for bots. All information interconnected and much more easy when it comes to find information on the web. It really works for real world entities. And oh no I don’t think marketers would be able to abuse this. However i don’t see any opportunity for them.
I’ve tried Knowledge Graph and it’s working for me on Chrome 😉 Thanks for sharing information about Knowledge Graph…
Cheers…
Hi Mayura, I’m very happy that Google Knowledge Graph is working for you. The tool is very useful and the more you use it the more it will learn what sort of information you’re looking for.
As far as marketers being able to use the information, I imagine that could be a motivating factor for Google implementing this feature. I’m actually a fan of targeted marketing. If I have to see ads, I’d rather see ones that relate to me as opposed to ones that have nothing to do with my life.
I know things need to improve and evolve but the reason I moved to google from yahoo all those years ago was that google was so simple to use. It was a box I typed in and that was it. I dont like all these additions and integrations, they put me off!
Am I in the minority or do you agree?
Hi Rene, You’re right, simple is a good thing. But I think that this additional information on the right side of the search results page is a simple way of getting additional information to you. I like that they didn’t try to mix the Knowledge Graph in with your search results.
I encourage you to give Knowledge Graph a try. You may find that it’s actually simpler to use than the previous version of Google.
Hi Rene,
I agree with your opinion. I used to search through Yahoo and LiveSearch (Bing) before but they put me off because the earch results list is much more “complicated” than Google’s one.
However, Carolyn is right by saying Google Knowledge Graph is only an additional window available on the righ panel next to your searches. It does not harm the search list at all, but gives slightly better user experience.
Hi Alex, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech. Excellent point. Simple search results are best and I agree with you that Google Knowledge Graph preserves the simplicity of its results while trying to offer additional information. I just read an interesting article from The Next Web, interviewing Emily Moxey, the product manager for Knowledge Graph at Google who said the internal rule was, “don’t break search”. How an MP3 player inspired the launch of Google’s Knowledge Graph. It’s a tricky task to enhance a stalwart feature without taking away from the basic functions, but I do believe Google got it right with Knowledge Graph.
Thanks for a warm welcome to your blog. Thanks for sharing this link, it’s really interesting one. Based on the interview I do think Google wants people to be able to explore broadly around a topic they search and this is very helpful I think. Regards
Sorry I’m late getting over to this post Carolyn.
I just read about this today on another blog as a matter of fact. I actually like what Google is doing because there has been plenty of times that I’ve not really been able to locate the information I was searching for so incorporating this into the search will really help. At least it will for me. Okay, I’m hoping…
I have no doubt they’ll just continue to improve our search experience from this day forward. I mean they are the King of search engines.
Thanks for this information Carolyn. As always, you stay on top of everything.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, I’m glad you’re seeing the value in this feature. Knowledge Graph may be a very handy tool for you to target the information you need. This was big news in the tech world, but I didn’t see it reported much in the regular news so I wanted Wonder of Tech readers to learn about it. Glad you’re on top of the tech news, Adrienne!
Interesting post, Carolyn. I must admit, Google is my favorite search engine, and I love the fact that they’ve now added Google Knowledge Graph to the mix. And I just did a search for Philadelphia, and the knowledge graph came right up. It does make searching much easier, doesn’t it? I hadn’t paid much attention to it until you mentioned it. I like how the graph appears on the right (at least for me with the search I just did), away from the main search results. Nice. Thanks for letting us know about it!!
See you soon and take care…
-Allyson
Hi Allyson, You’re right, if people didn’t know about Google Knowledge Graph, they may not pay attention to the added information on the right. But that extra bit of knowledge may very well be exactly what you’re looking for.
I’m glad it worked for you, Allyson and I hope that the feature continues to be helpful to you in the future! 🙂
Wow! I can almost hear people complaining about invasion of privacy, but Knowledge Graph sounds super cool to me! =) At least Google isn’t using my information just to bombard me with ads anymore! =) Your screenshot looks kind of like a Wiki to me, but better.
Can’t wait to get access to this! =)
Hi Samantha, Yes, this is a very cool feature. I really like how it gives information that you might not find otherwise. I hope Knowledge Graph comes to Peru soon for you, Samantha!