The evolution of Google’s Knowledge Info Panel is quite fascinating. The testing started in Nov 2012 through to March 2013 with the displayed knowledge panel changing regularly. I even managed to catch 3 different knowledge info panels being displayed in the same 24hr period on one occasion.
Within the evolution of the knowledge info panel, I am not entirely sure if the knowledge info panel was shown not logged in from the launch. However mid way through the process, i did use incognito and proxy servers to determine whether the knowledge info panel was Geo targeted, which it is (with some exceptions), so it is fair to assume at this point the knowledge info panel was available in search logged out (Incognito)
Knowledge Info Panel is now referred to as Knowledge Panel, however when the knowledge panel first appeared the original element was labelled as Info, so it was termed Knowledge Info Panel.
Business Knowledge Panel: Current |
Date: July 2019
Creating a Google Post through Google My Business allows you to publish events, products and services directly and instantly in the knowledge panel.
Read more on how to create a Google Post.
Date: April 2018
Business Descriptions appear back in knowledge panel.
After a two year disappearance business descriptions are back for business listings and now appear within the knowledge panel.
Date: August 2017
Questions & Answers appear in the knowledge panel.
Google Maps launched Questions & Answers direct into a businesses Google Listing, allowing customers to ask the business questions and the business owner to provide an answer.
Date: July 2017
Google Posts launched and appear in knowledge panel.
Google Posts allows you to publish events, products and services directly and instantly in Search (your Businesses Knowledge Panel) and Maps (within Maps Local Finder).
Date: August 2016
Google.co.uk is displaying the Knowledge Panel as a One Box display rather then in the traditional right hand side.
This has been tested in the US and it seems that it is being tested in UK today. Not sure if this will be rolled out permanently yet.
Date: August 2016
Google starts displaying Critics Reviews in the knowledge panel. This is US only at the moment.
Compared to the mobile version this looks a bit slap stick and will hopefully be work on to provide a better look that is more inline with mobile display.
Date: July 2016
Google adds new features to edit Knowledge Panel / Business page directly from search results when logged in to account.
New Knowledge Panel direct edit layout in Search results has been updated to include adding photos and access to the business pages dashboard.
Date: March 2016
The business knowledge panel is increasingly combining additional elements from the knowledge graph and knowledge cards.
This knowledge panel for Harrods combines sections from the knowledge graph: Wiki description, founder, founded, CEO and parent organisation.
Popular times are extracted from users mobile phone location, that have opted in to sharing their location data.
Send to your phone is extracted from Google Maps direction and Maps app which you have to be signed in for.
Social profiles extracted from knowledge graph and or using schema SameAs from website structured markup.
Date: Dec 2015
Hotel Knowledge Panels have changed the way reviews are displayed. Where there is enough information available, they are now segmented into seperate sections.
Review Summary snippets are fed to Google via TrustYou. TrustYou scrapes review sites and creates a snippet or review summary based upon the overall reviews left by reviewers across multiple sites. Review summaries are updated by Google algorithmically, typically monthly.
Knowledge Panel for Restaurants : Current |
Date: Dec 2015
New Place Actions in schema markup provides restaurants the opportunity to have Reservations, Menu’s and Order functions appearing in their knowledge panel
Knowledge Panel with Social : Current |
Date: Dec 2015
Schema markup allows sites to markup their social channels with “sameAs”. This only appears on authority sites knowledge panels at the moment.
Knowledge Panel for Business Page |
Date: May 2014
The Knowledge panel for business pages display “Recent Posts”, notice that the review snippet display has not appeared.
Knowledge Panel for Brand Pages |
Date: May 2014
Brand knowledge info panels are a lot less glamorous, but none the less, it is Branding real estate. Currently there are 2 types of knowledge info panels for Google+ Brand pages : with image and without image. To display an image you have to add an image to the post. A post created with a link, does not show an image in the knowledge info panel.
Knowledge Panel is Geo Targeted |
Date: Nov 2013
At this point late in January 2013, I tested to see the knowledge info panel was geo targeted, it was! Brand queries from different countries did not display the knowledge info panel.
I tested on manufacturing, fashion, jewellery and finance. The only exception to this was Hotels.
It is worth noting that at this test, both snippets from recent posts were both displaying Live Links.
Personal Knowledge Panel (SPYW) is Available in UK |
Up until this point SPYW was not available in the UK.
Personal knowledge info panel goes into the usual testing phase as with regular info panels, above are three different phases of the personal knowledge info panel in SPYW.
New Personal Knowledge Panel
Date: 12 Feb 2013
Februaries testing of the knowledge info panel was interesting. With images being the flavour of the day.
Google displayed the image if it was posted with image or if it was extracted from the linked posts. They also reverted back to testing two snippet with live links.
Date: March 2013
Info Panel testing in March was a mixture of the image without live link and no image with 1 live link.
Both info panels have 1 singular snippet showing.
Apart from the live link, the knowledge info panels have not changed much to their current display. As always we will keep you updated if something should change.
Date: Jan 2013
Next testing period of the knowledge info panel begins again in Jan 2013.
Two info panels, one without live links and the other info panel showing 1 live link instead of 2 from the previous info panel tests.
Knowledge Panel for Business and Brands |
Date: 10th Nov 2012
Two types of knowledge info panels being displayed.
Both types of info panel being displayed had: Logo and 2 latest post snippets.
Some info panels were displaying the description from the profile introduction (seen on left in Pride of Britain )
Date: 18 Nov 2012
In this next testing phase of the info panel, the logo has been shrunk and the small description from the profile is not being tested. Two snippets still appear in the info panel
New live links (in Blue ) to the page appear in the knowledge info panel. Live link had to be a linked article and not in the body of the post.
Latest posts on Google+, is replaced with Recent Posts