Google’s Knowledge Graph Debuts

1
Norton Scientific Collection

• Googles Knowledge Graph Debuts

2
Google has launched its new search tool,
Knowledge Graph that will give direct answers in
its results instead of simply providing links in
an attempt to improve its core search business.
Now, when you search for a popular place, person
or thing, a floating panel on the right side of
the results page will have a summarized answer
for you, along with some related information.
3
The Knowledge Graph feature might just be the
largest search launch in Googles history. In
fact, Google says that this feature has already
surpassed the launch of Google News and Google
Image in terms of information available on the
first day and it will obviously continue to
grow as more collections and relations are being
added. And for an online community thats getting
sick of all the hype on social search, Googles
renewed focus on improving the key search
business is a refreshing change.
4
Google has been working on the Knowledge Graph
for the past 2 years and have already made a
database with 500 million entities and 3.5
billion defining connections and attributes like
related searches. The Knowledge Graph draws
information from a collection of information
publicly available from sources like Freebase,
Metaweb, Wikipedia, Google Books and World CIA
Fact Book, among others.
5
Norton Scientific Collection reports that Google
is not aiming to give false information with is
Knowledge Graph but to actually draw
relationships between objects in an attempt to
figure what a user wants to know. For example, if
searching for a prominent figure in history, the
KG may include family details as well as his
notable works and other contributions.
6
Amit Singhal, Googles senior vice president of
engineering, said in a blog post, Were proud of
our first baby stepthe Knowledge Graphwhich
will enable us to make search more intelligent,
moving us closer to the Star Trek computer that
Ive always dreamt of building. The rollout of
this new feature will result in users being
presented with summarized information about the
query term along with the classic search results
links.
7
This is the fulfillment of Googles previous
promise to start employing semantic algorithms
aiming to improved search through automatically
connecting related ideas. Basically, its goal is
to offer users contextualized answer and more
helpful details while anticipating next queries.
In short, Knowledge Graph is designed to make
users find the exact answers even more quickly.
Also in the right panel, there will be related
links to help users discover other stuff that are
connected to their search. It is like making a
non-linear association to something that might
come up in a conversation among friends.
8
This is a feature that has considerable long-term
applications for online search and it is
obviously still a work in progress for
Google.   Were in the early phases of moving
from being an information engine to becoming a
knowledge engine, and these enhancements are one
step in that direction, said product management
director Johanna Wright in Googles promotional
video for the Knowledge Graph.
9
At present, the Knowledge Graph is only available
for English-language searches and plans to launch
it in other languages are still in the works.
Possible updates may also include media like
audio and video files as well as links for buying
products directly.