Nicholas Michalak Technical Presentation COSC 380

What’s the Plan?  Give a very concise history of Google  Mention a few major innovations  Explain the Knowledge Graph  Show a few examples of what the Knowledge graph is capable of  Wrap-up with conclusion and questions

How it all started  1996: Larry Page and Sergey Brin begin work on a search engine called BackRub  1997: Changed name to Google  April 1 st 2000: Announce the MentalPlex Able to read user’s minds  By 2001 available in 26 different languages and image search is available

One Important Goal  Return the best search results possible, conveniently and fast  Major Innovations to help accomplish this: 2000: Google tool bar 2004: Google SMS (Short Message Service) 2005: Google Maps, iGoogle, Google Earth 2007: Gmail opens to public 2010: Google Instant 2012: **Knowledge Graph**

Before the Knowledge Graph  How does Google work? Crawling – searching the web Page Ranking – Based on linkage Word Indexing – indexes keywords on different pages When user enters search looks for instances where a majority of the words they entered are grouped in proximity to each other Displays these based on ranking

Knowledge Graph  First step towards providing users with answers, rather than a collection of search results  Attempt to turn ambiguous words into actual concepts understandable by search engine  Distinguishes between homophones  *The knowledge graph only appears when you are searching for data already in its continuously growing database

How does KG Work  New format for collecting and storing information about particular objects  Links this information to other relatable objects that you might also be interested in  This information shows up on a panel next to your web results, along with links other people found useful related to your topic

What it looks like Web Results have not changed

What it looks like This is what’s new Map General info Upcoming Events Points of interest *The Type of information that appears in this panel depends on what you are searching for

Handling vague searches/homophones  Prompt user to indicate more precisely exactly what it is they are looking for  Displays results only relating to that meaning  Eliminates other results in both the panel and web results

Example of this: Very General Results

Example of this: Shows Possible Results: Now user pick what they were looking for Lets assume user meant the TV show Kings

Example of this:

Notice both change

Intention for KG  Main: Improve Google’s “time of result” Some argue it made it negative ○ MentalPlex Johanna Wright: director of product management ○ KG already returns answers to almost 40 percent of the questions users would otherwise ask next  Also there is a version of the knowledge graph developed for mobile devices Hope to compete with Apple’s Siri

Conclusion  Touched on history and innovations of Google  Overview of the Knowledge Graph and its purpose  Along with a few examples of how it works  Thank you! Any Questions?

Sources  Elgan, Mike. "When Search Takes Fewer Than Zero Seconds." Datamation. N.p., 12 Sept Web. 16 Sept  "Our History in Depth Company Google." N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept  Scott, Cameron. "Google Search Will Incorporate "Knowledge Graph" into Main Search Results." CIO. N.p., 16 May Web. 24 Sept