Google Knowledge Graph: Does Google Know What You’re Thinking?

…before you even think it? One day, we’ll explain to our grandchildren how we used to have to type in search queries, and they’ll marvel that we are so old. Just three years ago, we were amazed at Google’s innovation of supplying us with search suggestions: we type in “why” and Google gives us some options, including, “am I so tired?” “Is my poop green?” and “is the sky blue?” This is now an ingrained part of our search experience. Google has unrolled another improvement, Knowledge Graph, that it hopes will make the search engine smarter.

Facebook may have the social graph, but Google has the Knowledge Graph. In Google’s official blog, they explain the change: “Take a query like [taj mahal]. For more than four decades, search has essentially been about matching keywords to queries. To a search engine, the words [taj mahal] have been just that – two words.” But, you could mean the monument in India or the restaurant down the street with the great curry. The Knowledge Graph will provide information that is relevant to your query, whether the real Taj Mahal or the restaurant.

Google uses social cues to do this, and the Knowledge Graph is also based on aggregate information on searches. When, for instance, people look for Adele, they may be looking for the names of her albums, top songs, or trivia. Google will provide an instant answer to these specific queries.

The key is that Google is trying to make its search engine think more like a human than a bot. That is, a table is more than six characters; it is an object, a real thing. When it knows this, it can deliver more intuitive results.

As Information Week points out: “With its Knowledge Graph, Google becomes less of a search engine and more of an answer engine. It remains to be seen whether Google’s answers dam the flow of curiosity that carries clicks and revenue downstream to other websites.” We will see if a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Posted by Vadym Gurevych, Business Development Director at Bullseye Media