Did you know that "male lions defend the pride's territory while females do most of the hunting"? Did you know that "the name humpback whale describes the motion it makes as it arches its back out of the water in preparation for a dive"? What about this one: "ostriches have the largest eyes of any land living animal and they measure 50 mm (2 inches) in diameter"?

Google now shows random facts about animals in the "did you know" section of the Knowledge Graph card. They're extracted from various sites and Google actually links to the source.



Some example of queries that return random facts: [cat], [lion], [tiger], [alpaca], [giraffe], [ostrich], [duck], [elk], [raccoon], [shark]. It's worth pointing out that you can get another random fact by reloading the page or searching again for the same animal.

Sometimes Google's Knowledge Graph cards use more real estate than all the other search results combined. I've searched for [from Paris with love] in the experimental mobile-like desktop interface and got a huge card with images, information about the movie, ratings, cast. Then Google displayed 10 search results and 3 other cards with John Travolta movies, Luc Besson movies and action movies, followed by another list of related searches.



Somehow, the list of search results felt like a placeholder for future Knowledge Graph enhancements. Here's the entire page:

Google's Knowledge Graph cards added a button that lets you share the search results pages on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or by sending an email. You're actually sending a link to the entire search page, not just to the card.

Knowledge Graph cards include a lot of useful information extracted from various web pages and other resources: images, official homepage, social network pages, Wikipedia descriptions, useful facts, events, quotes and more.

Last week, Google's movie cards added snippets from critic reviews. You can find quotes from sites like Variety, Rolling Stone, New York Times and click the links to read the full reviews.


This new Knowledge Graph feature uses schema.org structured markup from websites. "With the recent launch of critic reviews in the Knowledge Graph, we've leveraged this technology to once again provide publishers with an opportunity to increase the discoverability and consumption of their reviews using markup. This feature, available across mobile, tablet, and desktop, organizes publishers’ reviews into a prominent card at the top of the page," informs Google. Here's the help center article for webmasters.

You can search Google for [minions reviews], [reviews for ex machina] or ask Google: "did Fantastic Four get bad reviews?" and you'll see a list of reviews. Critic reviews are also displayed in the regular cards for movies and Google plans to expand this feature to books and TV shows.

Last month, Google tested some colorful cards for mobile search results. Now Google's mobile site shows Knowledge Graph cards with colorful backgrounds, but only if you're not signed in.


It's not clear if Google uses random colors or they're related to the image search results.

{ Thanks, Shinohara Makoto. }

A few days ago, Google announced that health-related Knowledge Graph cards now include a lot more information. "We'll show you typical symptoms and treatments, as well as details on how common the condition is — whether it's critical, if it's contagious, what ages it affects, and more. For some conditions you'll also see high-quality illustrations from licensed medical illustrators."

I've searched for [type 2 diabetes] and Google displayed a lot of information: organs affected by diabetes, symptoms, ages affected, treatments, specialists. "When you search for a medical condition, you'll see three tabs: About, Symptoms, and Treatments. Right now, we show this medical information for the most frequently searched for health conditions, and we will continue to increase the number of conditions we cover," informs Google.




Google "worked with a team of medical doctors to carefully compile, curate, and review this information. All of the gathered facts represent real-life clinical knowledge from these doctors and high-quality medical sources across the web, and the information has been checked by medical doctors at Google and the Mayo Clinic for accuracy."

For now, the upgraded cards are only available in the US if you use the English interface. They're displayed in both the desktop site snd the mobile site/apps.

When searching for a song, Google usually shows a big card that links to the YouTube music video. The card includes a thumbnail and some information about the song (artists, album, release date, awards, lyrics). It's now clear if Google obtains that information from Wikipedia or from other sources, but sometimes Google's algorithms make mistakes.

Pentatonix has recently released a cover of "Mary, Did You Know" and Google shows the right YouTube music video when you search for [Mary, did you know]. Unfortunately, the information placed below the video thumbnail is inaccurate. Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd aren't the right artists, the song is not from 2002 and the album is not called "The Gift".


"'Mary, Did You Know?' is a Christmas song with lyrics and music written by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene. It was originally recorded by Christian recording artist, Michael English on his solo debut album in 1991. A duet version recorded by Wynonna Judd and Kenny Rogers peaked at No. 55 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in 1997," informs Wikipedia.

Fortunately, there's a "Feedback" link that lets you report mistakes.

Here's another sign that Google+'s importance is diminishing: Google's Knowledge Graph cards now include links to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and sites like YouTube and Instagram. Google also adds links to Google+. Some examples: Björk, Kirsten Dunst, Barack Obama.


Knowledge Graph cards still include the most recent Google+ post and don't show updates from Twitter or Facebook.

{ via Search Engine Land }

I'm not sure if this is new, but I thought it's worth mentioning. When searching for [pac man], Google shows a card that links to the doodle from 2010 that celebrated 30 years of Pac-Man.

Google doesn't have a card for doodles, so this was manually added. The card has two calls-to-action: "Play PAC-MAN Doodle" and "Click to Play", it includes the source of the doodle: "Google homepage, May 21, 2010", a large promotional image and some copyright information: "PAC-MAN™ & ©1980 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc."


The game plays inline and there's a permalink for the game.

Google's Knowledge Graph cards now include information about video games. You can find all about Pac-Man, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Candy Crush Saga, Grand Theft Auto, Need for Speed, Minecraft, Halo, Counter-Strike or any other game for mobile devices, desktop computers or consoles.

Google shows links to app stores and gaming sites. Cards also include ratings, screenshots, initial release date, developer information, supported platforms, publishers, awards and more.



{ via +Google }

Google now shows a list of facts next to some Wikipedia results. Knowledge Graph data extracted from Wikipedia is now placed below the snippets.

For example, when searching for [duchy of Amalfi], Google shows some information about Amalfi, a town in the province of Salerno and the former capital of the Duchy of Amalfi.


When searching for [king of Rome], Google shows the name of the last king and the year when the monarchy ended.


Some of the facts aren't very useful or are taken out of context. For example, Google shows "President: Dwight D. Eisenhower" next to the Wikipedia result for Richard Nixon, without mentioning that Nixon was vice president during the Eisenhower administration.

Do you want to learn more about the forms of government from various countries? Search Google for "government of [country]" and Google will show if the country is a constitutional monarchy, constitutional republic, federal republic, unitary state, parliamentary republic, non-partisan democracy, military dictatorship.

Here's an example for [government of tuvalu]


Click one of the forms of government and Google will display more information. For example, Tuvalu, a small island in the Pacific Ocean, is a nonpartisan democracy, which means that Tuvalu has no political parties. It's also a constitutional monarchy.


Germany is a federal republic, which means it's a federation of states with a republican form of government.


Switzerland is also a federal republic, but it's the only country in the world that's a direct democracy and has a directorial system. "Switzerland is the closest state in the world to a direct democracy. For any change in the constitution, a referendum is mandatory (mandatory referendum); for any change in a law, a referendum can be requested (optional referendum)," explains Wikipedia. Switzerland is also a directorial republic, "a country ruled by a college of several people who jointly exercise the powers of a head of state or a head of government".


{ Thanks, Herin Maru. }

If you search for [oscar winners], Google shows a long list of winners in the Knowledge Graph sidebar. You can scroll down to see all of them, switch to a different year or click a category and see all the nominees. Search for [oscar 1995] to find the winners from 1995, for example.


You can also try [Grammy], [Emmy], [Cesar winners], [Goya Awards], [Tony awards], [Golden Globes], [Brit Awards], [Pulitzer], [Nobel awards] and many other queries. It works for more specific queries like [nobel peace prize] or [nobel prize physics].

Google tests a timeline view for Knowledge Graph cards. For a query like [World War I], Google's experimental interface displays a chronological list of important events obtained from Wikipedia articles.


Mouse over an event and Google shows more information, including images, relevant dates and snippets from Wikipedia articles. Click the event to perform a Google search.


By default, Google only highlights some of the most important events, but you can zoom in to explore to see even more events. Google uses colors and parallel axis to distinguish between different types of information.

Here's a video that shows this feature in action. Right now, the timeline view looks like a tool for power users and Google will have to create a simplified interface when this feature is publicly released.

Back in 2007, Google Labs added a timeline view for Google Search. Google News Archive also had a timeline view. These features displayed relevant search results about important events related to your query.


{ via Florian Kiersch - translation }

I mentioned in a previous post that Google answers complicated questions using information from web pages. Now Google also shows images next to the relevant snippets. Here's an example for [galaxy s5 focal length].


Here's another example for [iphone 5s focal length]. This time, Google highlights the wrong answer:


A search for [iphone focal length] returns a row from a table that compares focal length for the latest 4 iPhones.

Google had a few local Q&A services in different countries: Otvety (Russia), Baraza (Africa), Tanya Jawab (Indonesia), Guru (Thailand), Giai Dap (Vietnam), Ejabat (Arabic), Wenda (China). On June 23, all the services were discontinued and became read only.

"Baraza was developed when there was not adequate content on the web in emerging market languages. Content in emerging market languages has grown significantly over the past few years and several other services for user-generated content are now available. Questions that have been answered up to now will be available for users to search and browse. No new questions and answers will be accepted, as we have stopped active development of this service," informs Google.


Users can download their questions, answers and private message from Google Takeout.

Google's Knowledge Graph cards sometimes include tables extracted from web pages. For example, when searching for [fl food stamp number], Google shows the phone number of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program office from Florida. Google mentions that the page has "53 more rows and 2 more columns".


Here's the page used by Google to find the phone number:


Google also shows table snippets for regular search results and has an experimental table search engine.

Google Maps for desktop added a "quick facts" card that uses information from the Knowledge Graph. If you search for a country, a state, a city, a district, a museum or any other important building, you'll find some information from Wikipedia.



Google Maps cards include a lot of useful information, depending on the context: events, transit information, hotel booking.



{ via +Google Maps }

Google Latitude was the name of a Google product. When you search for [google latitude], Google now shows the physical coordinates of its headquarters.


This is powered by Knowledge Graph and it's no limited to the Googleplex. It also works for [pentagon latitude], [tour eiffel coordinates] and more.

Google's Knowledge Graph boxes now include a list of related topics and some excerpts from articles about them. The related topics are usually linked from the corresponding Wikipedia article.

For example, when you search for [equilateral triangle], Google shows these related topics: Equilateral polygon, Square, Regular polygon, Pythagorean theorem.


Here's another example for [Earth atmosphere]: