Google Launches Knowledge Graph Search API, Promises To Close Freebase API In Future

Last week, Google’s Freebase, which is to close sometime in the future, announced on Google+ the new Google Knowledge Graph Search API.

The Google Knowledge Graph Search API will let you query the Knowledge Graph database for various information on the entities within the Knowledge Graph. This is to ultimately replace the Freebase API and the Freebase Suggest Widget. Google said they will release a replacement for the Freebase Suggest Widget and discontinue the Freebase Suggest Widget a few months later.

This is a read-only API, meaning you cannot submit changes to mistakes within the Google Knowledge Graph within this API. It is only for querying and pulling data from Google, not sending data back to Google.

Google provided some examples of how you can use the Knowledge Graph Search API, including:

• Getting a ranked list of the most notable entities that match certain criteria.
• Predictively completing entities in a search box.
• Annotating/organizing content using the Knowledge Graph entities.

Google said they will continue to support the Freebase API “for three full months after the Suggest Widget replacement is released.”

You can check out the new Google Knowledge Graph Search API over at developers.google.com/knowledge-graph.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.