Author
[email protected] [email protected]
Date published
October 23, 2012
Categories
Google is adding explanations to Knowledge Graph panels, where applicable. The explanations, which appear when a user hovers over images in the “People also search for” section, offer more information on how two subjects are connected.
In the product announcement, Google uses the movie “Gone With the Wind” as an example. Hovering over icons people also search for, in this case “The Wizard of Oz”, displays an explanation that Victor Fleming directed both movies.
It can also be used to indicate familiar or professional associations, as in the case of a search for actress Sandra Bullock. Keanu Reeves appears in the “People also search for” section of the Knowledge Graph panel for Sandra Bullock. Google now explains, “Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves both appear in The Lake House and Speed.”
“We’re starting by showing major co-starring roles between actors, movies, and TV shows as well as highlighting family connections amongst famous people in the Knowledge Graph,” Google engineer Golan Pundak explained on the Inside Search Blog. “These connections won’t show up all the time, but when there is an interesting explanation available, you can now see it at a glance.”
When Google launched Knowledge Graph in May, Engineering SVP Amit Singhal described the “People also search for” feature as “magical,” crediting this feature for some of his “most serendipitous discoveries.”
Knowledge Graph is part of Google’s mission to provide the information searchers seek on the SERPs page, or as close to it as possible.