Google Unveils Knowledge Graph, Takes Search to Next Level
Google is ready to change the way we look at search. Today they introduced a redesign to search results that provides you context on what you searched for, rather than the string you submitted.
The idea is this: when you search for a piano, you aren’t looking for the word “piano,” but an acutal piano. “Piano music” would be looking for piano music, not a generic string.
Searching for things, however, requires knowledge of what those things are. And for all Google’s vast archives, its computers still had no conception of what a piano was, or what it related to.
Google has spent the last several years fixing that, coding connections into its database. That way their computers know that pianos are related to music and instruments, lightbulbs are related to lighting, etc. The machines can draw comparisons, pull up related information to your search, etc.
The idea is to make Google’s search engine into something that can answer virtually any question with an answer.
This is really a high-level form of semantic search, knowing that asking ‘5+2’ is really asking for the solution to the math problem, not the characters 5 and 2. Semantic search and the semantic web have been pitched as the future of the internet for years, but very little movement has happened going towards it.
What does this mean right now? Well, a search for Marie Curie will provide you with a summary of who she is and what she is known for. Google will provide you with a list of things that other people searched for next, just in case you have a related query. Knowledge Graph also tries to guess what your next query will be and drop in some related answers. Basically, it will try to make your whole search experience easier.
I’ll admit, this isn’t as big a thing to me a it is to others. I use Duck Duck Go as my search engine rather than Google’s, and they have had these features since launch. But it is still nifty to have, and Google could easily spin this into a incredible thing.
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