Googlepedia

As previously anticipated, Google introduced Knowledge Graph, a new way to handle queries that replaces keywords with objects. It’s like replacing a dictionary with an encyclopedia.

“The Knowledge Graph enables you to search for things, people or places that Google knows about—landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art and more—and instantly get information that’s relevant to your query. This is a critical first step towards building the next generation of search, which taps into the collective intelligence of the web and understands the world a bit more like people do,” explains Google.

For now, you’ll only notice a new info pane in the right sidebar that shows more information about your query. Google’s graph has 500 million objects and 3.5 billion facts, so you’ll see the new section quite often. Google shows a small thumbnail, a snippet from a Wikipedia article, a few relevant facts and some related queries. It’s just like a Wikipedia infobox automatically generated using data from the Web and that’s smart enough to only show important facts and hide the things people won’t need.

The new info panes will also help users disambiguate queries just like Wikipedia’s disambiguation pages help users find the right articles.

Wikipedia’s internal links help you find other interesting articles. Google also adds links to all the other objects from the graph.

Some may say that Google borrowed too many ideas from Wikipedia, but that’s one step that could help search engines evolve. Understanding the relation between entities and learning their attributes allows Google to answer more complicated questions and get better search results. As Mashable says, “the transition from a word-based index to this knowledge graph is a fundamental shift that will radically increase power and complexity.”

Google “begun to gradually roll out this view of the Knowledge Graph to U.S. English users. It’s also going to be available on smartphones and tablets”. If you don’t see the new features yet, check back later.

{ Thanks, David. }

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Tags: Google

Research Sidebar in Google Docs

Google Docs has a new feature that lets you find more information about some of the words from a document and also add content from the Web. The research sidebar can be enabled from the Tools menu or by using the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+R (Cmd +Opt+R for Mac). You can also select one or more words from the document, right click and select “Research” from the menu.

The sidebar includes the top Google search results, image search results, facts, maps, reviews and famous quotes. Click the icon from the search box to restrict the results to images and quotes.

When you mouse over a Web search results, you can preview it, insert a link or cite it. For example, you can select “Google” from a document, press Ctrl+Alt+R, mouse over the top result and click “insert link” to add a link to Google’s homepage.

Restrict the results to images to quickly add an image using drag and drop. Google also has a specialized search engine for quotes and you can also add them to your document.

Search for a famous person, a place, a concept or any other entity and Google will display a list of attributes above the search results.

Maybe Google will also add features like translation and definitions to the research sidebar, so you can quickly find them.

{ Thanks, Scott and Evan. }

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Tags: Google

New Interface for the Google Q&A OneBox

Google’s OneBox for instant answers has a new interface that emphasizes the results. Google now displays the answer on the first line and the font size is bigger.

The QA OneBox now shows multiple answers for questions like [What is the cast of The Help?] or queries like [the dictator actors].

Until now, Google used the following template: “Best guess for … is …”.

Just because Google no longer mentions that the answer is a “guess” doesn’t mean that it’s always accurate.

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Google Tests a New Interface for Info Panes

Last year, Google started to test a new sidebar that offers useful information about your query. As the Wall Street Journal mentioned in a recent article, Google will soon “present more facts and direct answers to queries at the top of the search-results page”. There’s a large database of entities and each one has a list of relevant attributes.

For example, you could search for [California] and Google displays the capital of the US state, a list of important cities, attractions, the Secretary of State, a map and a snippet from Wikipedia. Google continues to test the info panes, but the interface has been updated, the main thumbnail is smaller and there’s more information that’s displayed. For singers, Google displays a long list of songs and some important albums.

Google’s experimental sidebar is similar to Wikipedia’s infobox, “a fixed-format table designed to be added to the top right-hand corner of articles to consistently present a summary of some unifying aspect that the articles share and sometimes to improve navigation to other interrelated articles”. It includes structured information about your query, related queries and links to all the topics that are mentioned. Google will look more like an encyclopedia.

{ Thanks, Anirban. }

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Google Sells Phones Again

Google Play is not just for digital content. You can now buy unlocked Galaxy Nexus phones for only $399 if you are in the US. “Galaxy Nexus devices purchased on Google Play are unlocked GSM/HSPA+ devices. The unlocked Galaxy Nexus requires GSM compatible service provider for voice calling. In the United States this includes ATT and T-Mobile,” explains Google.

“Galaxy Nexus costs $399 and arrives at your door unlocked, without a carrier commitment or contract. You can use it on the GSM network of your choice, including T-Mobile and ATT. It also comes pre-installed with the Google Wallet app which lets you easily make purchases and redeem offers with a tap of your phone. Best of all, we’ll give you a $10 credit to get you started with your new mobile wallet,” mentions Andy Rubin.

This is not Google’s first attempt to create an online store for selling Android devices. Back in 2010, Google launched a web store that allowed you to buy a Nexus One and choose your favorite service provider. Google’s goal was to add other Android devices and to make it easy to buy phones. Unfortunately, Google’s store wasn’t successful, people complained about the lack of customer service, Verizon skipped the Nexus One and Google closed the store four months later. “While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It’s remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from,” said Andy Rubin at that time.

It’s really difficult to sell unlocked phones in the US because they’re a lot more expensive than the locked phones, plans cost the same and phones can’t be used on two of the most important carriers: Verizon and Sprint. This time, things are a little different: Galaxy Nexus was only available for Verizon customers and its price dropped from $299 to $199. While $399 is not a high price for an unlocked phone launched 5 months ago, you can buy subsidized phones that are more powerful than Galaxy Nexus (for example, HTC One X for $199).

Google’s new store is better suited for tablets, since most people don’t buy subsidized tablets. As the Wall Street Journal speculated last month, “Google will open its own online store this year, but stocked with tablets instead of phones. The Android tablets would be built by Samsung and ASUS who already offer the well received Galaxy Tab and Transformer lines, but have been unable to make a dent in marketshare comparable to that of Apple or even Amazon.”

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