May 22, 2012
Google announced the launch of Knowledge Graph on May 16, 2012. With Knowledge Graph, Google hopes to evolve from a search engine to a “knowledge engine.” While by definition, knowledge itself is defined as clear and certain mental apprehension – Google is trying to take away the step where we as humans and learners don’t need to process information and data to achieve a knowledgeable state.
Google’s goals for Knowledge Graph are to help users find exactly what they’re looking for, regardless of the number of meanings a single word may have. It also claims it will help users find the “best” summary of the topic, based on other people’s queries (funny Google doesn’t let advertisers use “best” in ads without an unbiased third party’s claim but they provide the best summaries). It will also allow users to go “deeper and broader” into a topic to make “unexpected discoveries.”
The name aside, we feel that the Knowledge Graph should help improve relevancy to searchers, helping them to make distinctions between what they were looking for and what is out there.
The orange box displays where users can distinguish between what they are looking for be it Beverly Hills, California; Beverly Hills 90210 the TV show; or other cities by the same name in Michigan or New South Wales.
Improving relevancy is a constant optimization process for PPC search marketers. If Knowledge Graph does help increase relevance, on the paid search side, invalid clicks will decrease as will cost-per-click. Consequently, bounce rates may decrease for sites that are typically confused for a topic of the same name. Overall, the Knowledge Graph should make the search engine result page more organized and easier to navigate.
A couple of things we’re currently monitoring in regards to Knowledge Graph is if the inclusion of the Knowledge Graph box or panel will take up valuable advertising real estate at the top of the page. In addition, it will be interesting to see if ad impressions are counted before the searcher has had a chance to distinguish what they are looking for.
Frankly, testing the beta of Knowledge Graph internally, we felt the tool was lacking. For instance, when we searched for “apple,” the Knowledge Graph only displayed people related to Apple the company – nothing about the fruit, New York City A.K.A. the Big Apple or Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s daughter. While we must keep in mind it is still in beta, it will be interesting how the tool evolves and changes the search landscape.
How do you feel about the new Google Knowledge Graph?
Explore the beta for yourself here.