14 DAY TRIAL // Google has been making some changes to its search engines that are intended to provide answers right there and then rather than just direct people to the pages most likely to have the answers they are looking for.
The Knowledge Graph is the perfect example of that, but Google has been going beyond just providing answers, it's also providing people with questions they didn't know they wanted to ask.
That is to say, the "people also search for" section provides additional info on the topic you're searching for or something related, but it's not an answer, it's an invitation for a new query, a discovery tool.
Google has always had some discovery tool, similar to this one in fact, but the new version actually works, partly because it's more visual and more prominently placed, but also because it works better since it's based on data from the knowledge graph.
More often than before, the suggestions make sense and come for queries where additional data like this is welcomed, like the cast of a movie.
Google is now improving on the tool by making it more transparent, enabling people to find out why the new query was suggested and what's the link to their current one.
Needless to say, it's a big improvement, while the Knowledge Graph data ensures that the connection is there, it's not always obvious to people why a certain item may be suggested.
"People had fun with our Bacon Number calculator, which revealed some, often surprising, connections, and now we’re taking it one step further. Just mouse over or click on a thumbnail to see an explanation of how it’s connected to the subject of your search," Google explained.
"We’re starting by showing major co-starring roles between actors, movies, and TV shows as well as highlighting family connections amongst famous people in the Knowledge Graph," it said.
"These connections won’t show up all the time, but when there is an interesting explanation available, you can now see it at a glance," it added.