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Tag: knowledge graph

Game On! Google’s Knowledge Graph Now Shows Video Games

As of a couple days ago, Google’s Knowledge Graph now includes information about video games! For those of you unfamiliar with the Knowledge Graph, it’s the box that appears on the right side of search results usually for searches like famous people, books, movies, and businesses. It includes pertinent, concise information on the subject matter. Accessible through desktop, mobile, and voice searches, the Knowledge Graph is Google’s way of connecting “real-world things” to provide “more meaningful results.”

With video games, there are a few basic information points that users typically look for when searching for video games. With this addition to the Knowledge Graph, Google has created basic title information for video games, like release date, rating, developer, platform, and publisher, among other things, easy for users to find.

In the past, when I wanted to find the release date for a new video game it would take a bit of clicking around on various sites (usually Wikipedia or IGN) to locate that information. Now I can find out when Far Cry 4 is coming out just by searching “Far Cry 4,” which to me is pretty amazingly convenient!

Another exciting feature for gamers is the “people also search for” section, which enables you to easily discover a new game! It is worth noting, however, that it seems (at least for now) in this section, games in a series are plagued by their previous or original titles. To me, that’s wasted space. I’d obviously know to check out Far Cry 1-3 if searching for Far Cry 4 and would like to see a more varied selection.

I did a test to see if some of my all-time favorite games would also show up in a search (even if they’re much older games). Diablo II, Game of Thrones (the RPG) and the lesser-known Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds all passed! As suspected, however, it seems like the less recognized games, like Game of Thrones, miss out on some of the listed data, such as game photos, ratings, and a “people also search for” section. As an avid gamer, I know better than to judge a game purely based off ratings, but it’s still great data to have, now made easily accessible to searchers via the Knowledge Graph.

For more information on this awesome update, check out VentureBeat’s article including direct info from a Google spokesperson.

November 3, 2014
5 For Friday – Facebook Privacy, Google With Your Voice, and Yelp Videos!

1. Facebook Defaults Posts From “Public” to “Friends” & Introduces Comprehensive Privacy Checkup
– Marketing Land

Facebook has finally launched a major change that may have an impact on their real-time efforts. With the privacy updates, users’ posts will now default to only be visible by friends, and all users will be encouraged to check on their privacy settings if they have not been updated recently. Greg Finn says he expects that this update may cause hashtags and real-time conversations to continue on their decline.

2.Yelp Will Allow 12-Second Video Reviews Starting Next Month
– Marketing Land

Beginning in June, “Elite” users will be allowed to share their review of local businesses via a short video. These videos will first appear inline with the photos, but will eventually also appear along with the reviews like photos currently do.

3.Google+ Introduces New Features That Automatically Generate Movies and Travelogues
– Search Engine Journal

Google+ launches Stories and Movies that will bring together your photos and videos to highlight your favorite moments from your travel or an event. Google’s Story will arrive within 24 hours after you return from your vacation. After you receive your story, you will be able to customize it and share it. Google+ Movies will include related photos and videos along with a soundtrack and special effects.

4. Google Adds “Okay Google” Voice Search For All Chrome Users
– Tech Crunch

Users will first need to give Chrome permission to use the mic on their computer. Then you can simply go to Google.com and say “Okay Google” to trigger the voice search followed by your search request.

5. Google Paid “Dealers Nearby” Appears To Have Gone Live
– Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal noticed that Google’s new paid ads (now appearing within the knowledge graph) are live. This seems to be only the case in the US according to the comments thread on Dr. Pete’s tweet regarding this update. Mike Blumenthal suggests that we may one day see Google selling competitors space in branded knowledge panels.

May 23, 2014
5 For Friday – Backlinks, Knowledge Graph, And Privacy!

1. Matt Cutts: Google Won’t Devalue Links Anytime Soon

-Search Engine Watch

Well, you’d certainly hope this is the case with the way Google is initiating hundreds of thousands of manual actions every month…But in Matt Cutt’s recent video, he explains the value of those quality links while Google continues to better understand and define what determines quality content. As it stands, Cutts sees the value of quality links to be a relevant ranking factor for the time being. So fear not, if you are working to improve the quality of your content along with improving and diversifying that backlink profile with authoritative links, you’re certainly protecting yourself from future menacing Penguin updates.

2. Google’s Knowledge Graph Expands into Google Maps

-Search Engine Land

Google’s knowledge graph is expanding from organic search results into their map results. Much like the results from regular search queries on google.com, the knowledge graph will now pull information cards with quick facts about certain places searched in Google maps results. But hey, don’t just take Search Engine Land’s and my word for it, run a maps.google.com search for New Orleans’ own St. Louis Cathedral and check it out for yourself!

3. European Court Requires Google to Delete Personal Info

-Search Engine Roundtable

Hey SEOs! Reputation management just got easier! If you live in Europe that is. In a recent ruling, a bill so cleverly titled “the right to be forgotten” requires that search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing must remove links from search results for a person’s name if that person requests to have that result removed.

4. How to Dramatically Improve Your Google Authorship

-KISS Metrics

This article provides some great tips for improving your Google authorship. As with any authorship improvement tip article, though, do keep in mind that excessive guest blogging is a definite no no. Keep the list of sites you contribute to condensed and featuring only those important and authoritative sites you write for. Guest blogging, if done incorrectly, can be seen as a spammy link-building tactic. A definite highlight of the tips provided in this article was “feature your most flattering picture…you don’t have to be good looking. You just have to…’put your best face forward.’” So no worries—you don’t have to be Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, or Jon Hamm. You just want to ensure your thumbnail image is clear.

5. 5 New and Improved Twitter Features Marketers Should Use

-Search Engine Watch

This article is a fantastic overview of those new Twitter features and how they translate into tactics marketers can utilize. A particularly interesting, stand out feature is that Twitter now allows for engaging tweets to appear larger than others. Now “all” you have to do is make sure your tweets are always relevant, engaging, and interesting to your audience.

May 16, 2014
5 for Friday — Links, Stories, & Posts for Your Weekend

1. Top 4 Strategic SEO Trends to Watch for in 2013 – Search Engine Journal

Don’t get lost in the mix! Take a broad look at your organization to make sure you’re producing top quality content, including social media, making your site mobile friendly, and understanding the knowledge graph.

2. Google Announces Retirement of RSS Reader – The Content Standard

Google has just announced that on July 1, 2013 Google Reader will retire. This is part of Google’s plan to remove irrelevant and no longer useful services. If most of your audience is using this to get your updates, now is the time to transition them to a new service.

3. How To: Use Twitter as a Listening Station – Small Business SEM

If being active on Twitter doesn’t seem to be producing the results that you’re looking for, then try being passive by listening first and then responding. Twilert allows you to create timed alerts for when certain phrases, handles, or hashtags are used. If that is too much, you can always go the traditional route by creating email notifications through Twitter itself.

4. Mobile Searchers Do It at Night – Marketing Pilgrim

Google and Nielsen recently put together a new report using data from 6000+ mobile searches to discover how it drives conversions. Did you know that 77% opt to use their mobile over a PC? So it’s important to make sure that you’re showing up in the first few results of a search otherwise you’ll never even make it onto their mobile screen.

5. Deadeye Keyword Research: Advanced Tips for Choosing the Right KWs from #SMX – aimClear Blog

The better the research, the better the keywords…even if Google stopped providing all referring keywords in analytics for “privacy reasons.”

Key Relevance’s Christine Churchill provides some alternatives to gathering this information because as Avalaunch Media’s Matt Siltala stressed, “you can’t skip over keyword research. You can’t get annoyed with it. You HAVE to do it.” Read on for more about keyword intent and keyword research tools.

March 15, 2013