I’ve written a handful of times about how Google’s Knowledge Graph, on occasion, displays erroneous information. At first it seemed kind of rare, but now, I’m seriously beginning to wonder just how often this is happening.
Rajni Singh, Associate Manager at analytics firm Mu Sigma, discovered that Google is showing wrong information for the company. Mu Sigma was founded by Dhiraj C. Rajaram. Wikipedia, which Google often uses for its Knowledge Graph info, even has it correct. When you search for “Mu Sigma Founder” on Google, however, Google tells you it’s Shailender Singh.
Notice that the “knowledge panel” on the right has Shailender Singh as a playback singer, which is accurate. How did this happen?
Also notice all the organic results, which all have the right guy as the founder, which Google pushes down in favor of its Knowledge Graph.
But hey, at least you can get updates about Singh, the singer, if you’re trying to find out who created the analytics firm. That’s helpful, right?
Obviously some kind of glitch is responsible for this search results page, but it’s always fun to see Google so much space to the least relevant result and pushing down the actually relevant links.
If Knowledge Graph errors really are rare, that’s one thing, but the frequency with which we’re coming across them seems to only be growing. It’s perhaps even more troubling considering Google is doing this with actual businesses. It makes you wonder how often it’s happening with medical and nutrition information.
Image via Google