There’s no escaping it: It looks and acts a lot like Google’s Knowledge Graph. But Bing calls it “Snapshot” — that middle column in between its main search results and the social sidebar on the far right.

And today, Snapshot expands to begin showing facts and related information for both people and landmarks. So, on a search for famous artist Pablo Picasso, the middle column shows his image and a few facts about his life, along with related search links to get information about his family, artwork and more.

Here’s a look:

The small print at the bottom of the Snapshot results for Picasso (not shown in the image above) indicate that the data is coming from Wikipedia, IMDB and Freebase.

In today’s announcement, Bing says it’s still focusing on helping searchers take action right from the search results. The Snapshot results for Rihanna, for example, include links to hear a few of her songs and buy some of her albums (via Xbox Music).

Snapshot previously focused mainly on information related to local businesses and events. Bing says it’ll expand to include search categories/types in the future.

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Snapshot | Search Features: Direct Answers | Top News

About The Author: Matt McGee is Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. See more articles by Matt McGee

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