Knowledge Graph

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This article is about Google's specific implementation of knowledge graph technology. For knowledge engine technology in general, see Knowledge engine. For knowledge graphs in information science, see Knowledge graph.

Knowledge Graph data about Thomas Jefferson displayed on Google Search, as of January 2015

The Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base used by Google and its services to enhance its search engine's results with information gathered from a variety of sources. The information is presented to users in an infobox next to the search results. Knowledge Graph infoboxes were added to Google's search engine in May 2012, starting in the United States, with international expansion by the end of the year. The Knowledge Graph was powered in part by Freebase.[1] The information covered by the Knowledge Graph grew significantly after launch, tripling its size within seven months (covering 570 million entities and 18 billion facts[2]) and answering "roughly one-third" of the 100 billion monthly searches Google processed in May 2016. The Knowledge Graph has been criticized for providing answers without source attribution or citation.

Information from the Knowledge Graph is presented as a box, which Google has referred to as the "knowledge panel", to the right (top on mobile) of search results.[3] According to Google, this information is retrieved from many sources, including the CIA World Factbook, Wikidata, and Wikipedia.[4][5] In October 2016, Google announced that the Knowledge Graph held over 70 billion facts.[6] There is no official documentation on the technology used for the Knowledge Graph implementation.[7]

Information from the Knowledge Graph is used to answer direct spoken questions in Google Assistant[8][9] and Google Home voice queries.[10]

History[edit]

Google announced Knowledge Graph on May 16, 2012, as a way to significantly enhance the value of information returned by Google searches.[4] Initially only available in English, the Knowledge Graph was expanded in December 2012 to Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Italian.[11] Support for Bengali was added in March, 2017.[12]

In August 2014, New Scientist reported that Google had launched Knowledge Vault, a new initiative to succeed the capabilities of the Knowledge Graph. Contrary to a database, which deals with numbers, the Knowledge Vault was meant to deal with facts, automatically gathering and merging information from across the Internet into a knowledge base capable of answering direct questions, such as "Where was Madonna born". It was reported that its main ability over the Knowledge Graph was to gather information automatically rather than relying on crowdsourced facts compiled by humans; by the time of the 2014 report, it had collected over 1.6 billion facts, 271 million of which were considered "confident facts", a term for information deemed more than 90% true.[13] However, after publication, Google reached out to Search Engine Land to explain that Knowledge Vault was a research paper, not an active Google service, and in its report, Search Engine Land referenced indications by the company that "numerous models" were being experimented with to examine the possibility of automatically gathering meaning from text.[14]

Criticism[edit]

Lack of source attribution[edit]

By May 2016, knowledge boxes were appearing for "roughly one-third" of the estimated 100 billion monthly searches the company processed. Dario Taraborelli, head of research at the Wikimedia Foundation, told The Washington Post that Google's omission of sources in its knowledge boxes "undermines people’s ability to verify information and, ultimately, to develop well-informed opinions". The publication also reported that the boxes are "frequently unattributed", such as a knowledge box on the age of actress Betty White, which is "as unsourced and absolute as if handed down by God".[15]

Declining Wikipedia article readerships[edit]

According to The Register, the implementation of direct answers in Google search results has caused significant readership declines for the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, from which the Knowledge Graph obtains some of its information.[16] The Daily Dot noted that "Wikipedia still has no real competitor as far as actual content is concerned. All that's up for grabs are traffic stats. And as a nonprofit, traffic numbers don't equate into revenue in the same way they do for a commercial media site". After the article's publication, a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, reached out to state that it "welcomes" the Knowledge Graph functionality, that it was "looking into" the traffic drops, and that "We've also not noticed a significant drop in search engine referrals. We also have a continuing dialog with staff from Google working on the Knowledge Panel".[17]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Singhal, Amit (May 16, 2012). "Introducing the Knowledge Graph: Things, Not Strings". Google Official Blog. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  2. ^ Newton, Casey (December 4, 2012). "Google's Knowledge Graph tripled in size in seven months". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  3. ^ "Your business information in the Knowledge Panel". Google My Business Help. Google. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Singhal, Amit (May 16, 2012). "Introducing the Knowledge Graph: things, not strings". Official Google Blog. Google. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  5. ^ Schwartz, Barry (December 17, 2014). "Google's Freebase To Close After Migrating To Wikidata: Knowledge Graph Impact?". Search Engine Roundtable. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  6. ^ Vincent, James (October 4, 2016). "Apple boasts about sales; Google boasts about how good its AI is". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  7. ^ Ehrlinger, Lisa; Wöß, Wolfram (2016). "Towards a Definition of Knowledge Graphs" (PDF).
  8. ^ Lynley, Matthew (May 18, 2016). "Google unveils Google Assistant, a virtual assistant that's a big upgrade to Google Now". TechCrunch. Oath Inc. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  9. ^ Kovach, Steve (October 4, 2016). "Google is going to win the next major battle in computing". Business Insider. Axel Springer SE. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  10. ^ Bohn, Dieter (May 18, 2016). "Google Home: a speaker to finally take on the Amazon Echo". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  11. ^ Newton, Casey (December 14, 2012). "How Google is taking the Knowledge Graph global". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  12. ^ "Making it easier to Search in Bengali". Official Google India Blog. Retrieved 2018-01-26.
  13. ^ Hodson, Hal (August 20, 2014). "Google's fact-checking bots build vast knowledge bank". New Scientist. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  14. ^ Sterling, Greg (August 25, 2014). "Google "Knowledge Vault" To Power Future Of Search". Search Engine Land. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  15. ^ Dewey, Caitlin (May 11, 2016). "You probably haven't even noticed Google's sketchy quest to control the world's knowledge". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  16. ^ Orlowski, Andrew (January 13, 2014). "Google stabs Wikipedia in the front". The Register. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  17. ^ Kloc, Joe (January 8, 2014). "Is Google accidentally killing Wikipedia?". The Daily Dot. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
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