At MozCon last month, I gave a talk titled “Beyond 10 Blue Links” that included 85 screenshots of Google SERP features that went beyond the traditional organic listing:
I purposely tried to overwhelm people and to show just how much the landscape is changing, but the truth is that this was just one part of the big picture. So, I’d like to take a deeper journey today – a trip through Google’s “answer box” – to show not only how SERPs are changing, but how the answer box reveals the direction and power of Google’s Knowledge Graph.
What’s an answer box?
An “answer box” is a SERP feature, usually displayed in a light-gray box, that occurs above the organic results (left column) and tries to directly answer a question. For example, if you were wondering what a “SERP” is and Googled “define serp”, you’d see this:
Most answer boxes are primarily text, contain a relatively short answer (when possible), and may give limited information about the source of the answer. Seeing is believing, so let’s jump right in.
(I) People & Relationships
Everybody loves celebrities, right? According to the supermarket checkout aisle, they’re just better than the rest of us. Let’s start with some answer boxes about people.
1. “Is Justin Timberlake married”
Sorry, ladies (and gentleman, depending on your persuasion), the short answer is: “yes”. This same wedding also took Jessica Biel off the market – I feel like the government should have gotten involved.
2. “Ben Stiller’s dad”
You can also check out other relationships, like famous parents:
3. “Jerry Stiller’s kids”
Some relationships are many-to-one. Here’s an answer box with richer content:
4. “How tall was Abraham Lincoln”
Was Abe really that tall, or were all the other Old-Timey people just really short, so he seemed tall by comparison? Turns out, he was pretty tall.
5. “How old is Bryan Adams”
So, the other day, I’m listening to “Summer of ’69” and I started wondering how old Bryan Adams actually was in 1969. Turns out, he was barely 10 years old, and he wants us to believe he started a band? I’m on to you, Bryan Adams!
6. “How old is Mickey Mouse”
I’m not crying – that’s just fairy dust in my eye (hat tip to @scheidja)!
7. “Walt Disney’s birthday”
Of course, we can also look at the other side of the circle of life:
8. “Jesus birthday”
Interestingly, Google includes much more than just data about contemporary folks:
9. “Genghis Khan death”
Death information (and sometimes location) is available for historical figures, as well:
10. “Gandhi assassination”
Other notable dates related to people are also available, although not as consistently:
11. “Chaucer buried”
A serious note: If you’re ever in Westminster Abbey, take a moment to realize that your standing on the graves of kings, queens, and poets.
12. “Justin Timberlake job”
What does JT actually do? Pretty much everything, because he’s amazing:
13. “Conan O’Brien education”
Did you know that Conan went to Harvard? You do now.
14. “Paul Hogan nationality”
I’d like to apologize to our friends down under for our bizarre fascination with you during the 80s. Point of fact, though: Crocodile Dundee is legitimately Australian.
15. “Fun singer”
I don’t know if he’s actually fun or not, but kudos on capturing the SERP:
16. “Gandhi Bacon number”
If you’ve ever wondered why the internet exists, here’s your answer (hat-tip to @BradyDCallahan).
(II) Athletes & Sports
Athletes are people, too, or so ESPN tells me. The sports realm has a number of unique answer boxes.
17. “How much does Beckham make”
Oddly, this seems uniquely available to athletes, for the most part. No word on what Victoria Beckham is cashing in these days.
18. “Kobe Bryant’s number”
When you need to settle a bar bet, answer boxes look good on mobile, too.
19. “Peyton Manning’s team”
In case you’re like me, and occasionally get the Manning brothers confused…
20. “Where is Tiger”
The format isn’t quite your typical answer box, but this is a great example of just how much Google is interpreting queries. Note that this only appears near active tournament dates (hat tip to @scheidja)
Fun fact: We originally saw this for “Where is Roger”, and it brought up results for Roger Federer. Of course, we all know that there’s only one Roger.
21. “Cubs score”
If you’re a Cubs fan, like me, and in perpetual need of torturing yourself, Google’s got you covered:
22. “NL Central standings”
You can also access division/league stats for many pro sports. Keep in mind that these are seasonal, and only seem to appear during the active season for any particular sport.
23. “Cubs schedule”
Here’s an expanding schedule of upcoming games:
24. “Where do the Yankees play”
If you’re really new to the sports world, fear not – there’s an answer box for you, too:
Fun fact: This answer box does not actually say “Duh”. Seriously, though.
25. “How many seats at Yankee stadium”
That’s a lot of hot dogs. Inferior, New York hot dogs, that is.
26. “Stanley Cup champion”
Yeah, baby. Even we Chicagoans get to win something now and then.
27. “NHL Stanley Cup”
This isn’t currently active, but during playoffs and championship series, you can see the entire schedule and historical scores:
28. “Tournament brackets”
For March Madness 2013, Google launched an entire bracketology feature (not currently active):
(III) Landmarks & Places
People shouldn’t have all the fun. Places have feelings, too. Ok, they don’t have feelings, but they do have answer boxes.
29. “Who built Wrigley Field”
Historical data is available for many major landmarks:
30. “When was the Empire State Building built”
Did you realize that the first skyscraper didn’t exist until after the elevator was invented? People are lazy.
31. “How tall is the Space Needle”
It’s been just over 50 years since someone thought: “Let’s put a UFO on a stick!”
32. “How many floors is the Sears Tower”
It’ll always be the Sears Tower to me, unless we also get the Arnold Tower and Mr. Drummond Tower. Then, I might come around.
33. “Population of Chicago”
Some answer boxes have specialized, rich content. This population trend graph is one of the more interesting ones:
34. “Size of Chicago”
You probably never actually wondered this, but I got a little crazy writing this post:
35. “Chicago unemployment rate”
Not one of our happier stats, but definitely an interesting, rich answer box:
36. “Seattle weather”
When I’m packing for the home office, this comes in handy. Google has all but taken over this space from the major weather sites. If you want local weather, you can just search “weather” or “temperature”.
37. “Seattle Mayor”
When I need to study up on my second home, Google’s there for me:
38. “Washington Governor”
There seem to be answer boxes for most major local, state, and Federal offices.
39. “Capital of Washington”
Note to self: Seattle is not the capital of Washington.
40. “Washington state flower”
You know what Illinois’ state flower is? The violet. Way to overcomplicate things, Washington.
41. “Washington state bird”
Why was learning this stuff so important in school? No one has ever jumped out of an alley and shouted “Quick, what’s your state bird?!”
42. “Canada languages”
What language do they speak in Canadia? It’s Canadese, right?
43. “Canadian currency”
Also, they have money in Canada. Who knew?
44. “Canadian Prime Minister”
It’s like they’re a real country. FYI: you have to actually know the proper form of government to get this answer box – “Canadian President” and “Canadian head honcho” don’t work.
45. “Mexico dialing code”
If you need to call your friends across either border, Google makes it easier for you:
46. “How big is the Pacific Ocean”
“Pretty damned big” would also have been an acceptable answer.
47. “How old is the world”
You can ask questions about just about anything georgraphic, including the entire earth (hat-tip to @zafeuer).
48. “Radius of Saturn”
Then again, why restrict yourself to earth-based factoids?
49. “How far is Saturn”
Ok, I meant “How far is Saturn from the earth”, but this just goes to show you that Google still has a few kinks to work out (hat-tip to @IAmPhilSharp).
50. “How far is Saturn from the sun”
Sometimes, you just have to be specific. Oddly, distance from the earth is not available, but distance from the sun is.
51. “How far to Seattle”
Of course, the “how far” answer box does have legitimate uses. I wonder this every time I get a “Free Cupcakes” email from the office (which is about 17 times per day).
52. “Who discovered Neptune”
Here’s a people and planets crossover answer box. Apparently, it took a lot of people to find Neptune.
Fun fact: John “Couch” Adams was the lesser known and lazier brother of our 6th president, John Quincy Adams.
(IV) Conversions & Calculators
Questions about numbers and units often yield interactive answer boxes. Here’s a list of conversion and calculator features.
53. “How big is an acre”
Building on our geography queries, you can easily convert units of area:
54. “70 Fahrenheit to Celsius”
This one’s handy for the MozCast followers out there (don’t worry, building this in is definitely on our to-do list):
55. “5 years in hours”
This is how long I spent in graduate school. Funny, it felt like at least 50,000 hours.
56. “How many millimeters in a cubit”
Some questions yield direct answers, and not a conversion box. It could have something to do with no one under the age of 103 ever measuring things in cubits.
57. “Bits in a terabyte”
Here’s a conversion calculator for us geeks. My first hard drive was 10 MB. Now, you can get a 1 TB external HD for $79.99. By the time I finish this post, they’ll be $39.99.
58. “Dollars to Euros”
Google completely took over currency conversion queries. You can also just search for “currency converter”.
59. “What is the speed of light”
Some specific scientific values have direct answer boxes. You can also look up mathematical constants, like “pi” and “Euler’s constant”.
60. “7 * 6”
Enter a mathematical expression, and you’ll get a scientific calculator answer box. Expressions can be pretty elaborate, including parentheses.
61. “Answer to life the universe and everything”
Of course, if 42 is really the answer you want, then you should be asking the right question.
62. “sin(x)”
Enter a function or complex equation, and you’ll get back a two-dimensional graph.
63. “sin(x)+cos(y)”
With the right multivariate equations, you can trigger a three-dimensional graph.
64. “How many calories in a taco”
Finally, the most important calculator of all: the taco calculator. Ok, it’s actually the nutrition calculator. Sadly, Google will not answer the question “How good is cheese?”
(V) Dates & Times
We covered a few date-based answer boxes in the people section (like birthdates), but that’s just the tip of the iceberg for date and time questions.
65. “When is Thanksgiving”
You can easily find the dates of many upcoming holidays, although a few minor holidays seem to be missing.
66. “When was Hanukkah”
In some cases, you can query the last occurrence of a holiday. Google also shows ranges for events that cover multiple dates.
67. “Mothers Day 2020”
Add a year to get the dates for future holidays. The year 2020 was as far ahead as I could get Google to currently go, but this may vary depending on the event.
68. “Fall Equinox”
This is the proper form of the question “What happened to summer?!”.
69. “Time”
Google is personalizing more answer boxes, and queries like “time” work now. If you want the time in another location, enter sometimg like “local time Seattle”.
70. “Sunrise Seattle”
On the days when Seattle actually has sun, Google will tell you when that alleged sun rises and sets.
71. “Timer 5 minutes”
Forget your stopwatch (and your iPhone, and your tablet…)? You can set a timer of just about any length directly through a search query. Added bonus: The alert is more obnoxious than a late-80s car alarm.
72. “Length of Martian day”
Don’t you hate it when you’ve got a call scheduled with Martian clients and… ok, I really have no idea why you’d ever need this.
(VI) Movies, Media, & More
You can’t spell “celebrity” without “le brit”, which is French for “The British”. Ok, half of that’s not true, and none of it is relevant. Here are some answer boxes about stuff celebrities do.
73. “When was Star Wars released”
Here’s a query I run when I want to feel l old. I was almost seven, for the record (hat-tip to @adamcarson).
74. “Who directed The 300”
I ask Google this question about twice a week, just to make sure I never watch any more of his movies.
75. “The 300 sequel”
Unfortunately, Google has no regard for my feelings:
76. “The Dark Knight rating”
Is it too early to let my 3-year-old watch the latest Batman saga? Ok, yeah, it probably is.
77. “Rocky writer”
Did you know that Stallone not only wrote the script to Rocky, but he did it in three days? Give Sly a little credit.
78. “James Bond movies”
Here’s a slightly odd one – a not even remotely complete list of Bond films:
79. “Narnia movie list”
The much shorter Narnia series gets a complete list, including thumbnails. Other queries, like “Harry Potter movies” generate a Knowledge Graph carousel. Google seems to be experimenting.
80. “When did The Simpsons debut”
Purists will probably note that The Simpsons actually debuted on the Tracey Ullman show in 1987. This is why purists have no friends (hat-tip to @adamcarson).
81. “Super Friends final episode”
Farewell, Zan, Jayna, and Gleek. We hardly knew thee.
82. “Sunny in Philadelphia network”
The curse of TiVo is that I honestly have no idea when any show airs or what channel it’s on.
83. “Greatest American Hero theme song”
“Believe it or not, I’m walking on air. I never thought I could feel so FREE-EE-EEE…” You’re welcome.
84. “Honey Boo Boo genre”
When I want to remember which genre never to watch, I run this search. Ok, so I watch Top Chef. And Top Chef: Masters. And The Voice. And Pimp My Ride. STOP JUDGING ME!
85. “Harry Potter author”
Once upon a time, there were these things called books. Don’t worry – there’s an app for that now.
86. “Grand Theft Auto 5 release”
If you can’t wait for whatever it is you kids can’t wait for these days, then here you go (hat-tip to @KrisRoadruck).
87. “Wicked composer”
It’s not quite as great as coming up at the top of “wicked awesome composer,” but I’m still pretty jealous.
(VII) Companies & Brands
For all the talk of big brands dominating the SERPs, it’s surprising how few of them currently have Knowledge Graph data. Here are a few examples of brand answer boxes.
88. “Amazon stock”
Google’s rich stock ticker answer box is probably one of the most obvious examples of company-related data:
89. “When was Microsoft founded”
You can get direct answers for a few questions about major companies, including their founding date (hat-tip to @wilreynolds).
90. “Amazon founder”
This is also the new answer to “Who owns the Washington Post?” (although that doesn’t get an answer box).
91. “Samsung headquarters”
You can look up the corporate headquarters for many large companies.
92. “Best Buy customer service”
Finally, a few companies pull up customer service phone numbers, but this data seems fairly spotty.
(VIII) Miscellaneous
Here are a few answer boxes that didn’t fit neatly into any of my other categories.
93. “UA 241”
Want your flight status in about 17 clicks less than it takes on the airlines’ sites? Just search your flight number.
94. “Flights to Seattle”
This isn’t technically an answer box (See the “Sponsored” notification in the upper-right), but it goes to show how much the line between organic and paid content is starting to blur.
95. “Define googol”
Some words will pull up definitions in an answer box. Google may be testing an even richer definition box, which includes word origins and usage data.
96. “Search in mandarin”
Translation is available for some terms, but the implementation is inconsistent at best.
97. “Mono symptoms”
Google has experimented heavily in the health/medical niche. Here’s a detailed symptoms answer box that pulls data from three major health sites.
98. “Cancer treatment”
I’m not sure cancer treatment can or should be summed up in a couple of paragraphs, but Google is apparently going to try.
99. “Poison control”
This doesn’t fit the typical format of an answer box, but here’s a situation where people obviously can benefit from a quick answer.
100. “How fast is an F-22 Raptor”
A few vehicles have statistics available in answer boxes. I would have expected more cars (especially high-end models) to have them, but I’ve mostly found aircraft data (hat-tip to @scheidja).
101. “Boeing 787 engine”
Here’s one I wouldn’t expect to have an answer box – the engines on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The Knowledge Graph Connection
So, where do these answer boxes come from? Some, like stock tickers and weather charts, are clearly custom designed and can involve exclusive data partnerships. When it comes to the factoids, though, most of these answers come directly from Google’s Knowledge Graph.
Let’s go back to the very first example. Here’s a portion of the Knowledge Graph entry for Justin Timberlake:
Notice the circled factoid, which just happens to match our first answer box. So, let’s try a little experiment. Let’s pick something you’ve probably never searched for: as a kid, I had a fascination with the Red Baron, who flew a plane called the Fokker Dr.I. If you search for “Fokker Dr.I”, you’ll see this KG entry:
So, what if we picked a factoid, like the Fokker’s wingspan? Sure enough, if you search Google for “Fokker Dr.I wingspan”, you get this answer box:
“Fokker Dr.I top speed”, “…length”, and “…first flight” all return answer boxes, but, oddly, “…manufacturer” doesn’t. I’d say that about 70-80% of the factoids I found in Knowledge Graph entries could be used to generate answer boxes, but sometimes Google was very picky about how the question was worded.
This all goes to show that the Knowledge Graph is much more than just an isolated box of information in the right-hand column. It’s fundamentally changing the nature of organic results and driving many of Google’s direct answers to questions. As KG continues to expand, it’s going to be critical to understand how it impacts your money keywords.
It also goes to show that these 101 answer boxes are just a sampling of what’s available in the wide world of Google’s Knowledge Graph. Have any favorites of your own? Be sure to share them in the comments.
