Google has a lot of side projects going on right now, so to some people, it might seem odd that they’d go back and update their core product. The search has and always will be the centerpiece of Google, 
and it seemed as though it was a perfectly fine service. However, Google thought it could use some revamping, so just recently they have rolled out with a lot of adjustments and changes to their flagship product, including Googles Knowledge Graph Release.
The Knowledge Graph
One of the major changes in Google’s most recent search update is the introduction of a service known as the “Knowledge Graph”. Since incorporating the Knowledge Graph into their search product, they have seen significant increases in search activity, which proves the concept is a winner. And it’s not just more searches being performed, either, but Google is seeing more human interaction with the search engine result pages, too.
What is the Knowledge Graph?
When you search for something using Google’s search service, the results are tallied up and displayed to you in a list, which is generally sorted by perceived relevance. This has been the tried and true method of web searches for a long time, and is mostly considered a standard search process.
With the introduction of Knowledge Graph, Google has tried to add another element of search results to the results page. On top of the list of websites in relevant order, Google now displays a box of information on the search terms. What does this mean, exactly?
Well, for example, if you had just watched a Tom Cruise movie and wanted to look up some information about the famous actor, you would probably type “Tom Cruise” in Google and push enter. To the right of the search results, there will be a box of information about Tom Cruise.
You’ll find a quick biography from Wikipedia, his birth day, his height, his full name, his spousal history, his children, and popular movies he’s starred in. On top of all that information, Google’s Knowledge Graph also displays other actors and actresses that people have searched for in tandem with Tom Cruise.
The key to searching
That’s really the most important part of this this new idea. While it’s great that Knowledge Graph can pull accurate data from trusted websites to form small biographies on people, places, and things, it’s not exactly a breakthrough idea by any stretch of the imagination. I think most people would both have no problem believing Google was capable of such a thing, and that it’s not really necessary.
But when you bring the power of Google’s search into the picture, things change. Suddenly, instead of just a bunch of information on something, you’re seeing a whole lot more. Who and what you search for actually, in a way, contributes to the Knowledge Graph of those things. If a lot of people search for “Mickey Mantle” and “George Lucas”, the Knowledge Graph will reflect that in the information box at the bottom.
Why is important?
This is useful for a lot of reasons, but by far the most important reason is because it facilitates human trends. You can’t go to a website and easily find spider webs of information that all, in some way, relate to each other for the sole reason that only a product as big as Google’s search could possibly hope to organize that information!
Google realizes the importance of a human element in everything. Computers and algorithms can only accomplish so much, and judging by the ferocity that Google shows in updating their products, they certainly plan to increase the role that the human element plays on the internet.
Here's some more information on Google's Knowlege Graph.
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