It was only a couple of years ago that Google were garnering widespread acclaim for revolutionising the landscape of internet marketing and web searching with the official implementation of their ‘knowledge graph’ database into their search engine. Lauded for breaking down the barriers of basic text-string searching and incorporating semantic inference into the way their engine perceives queries, it seemed as if the new technology was set for a long run at the top.

Google’s somewhat pointless release of the ‘bacon number’ facility into their search engine was suppose to highlight the advancement of the ‘knowledge graph’ and send a clear statement to the globe; a supernova has arrived which has redefined the internet forever.

However, the technological giant’s seemingly unquenchable ambition and desire for innovation has again been asserted with its confirmation that it is currently developing the impressive Knowledge Graph’s successor; the ‘Knowledge Vault’.

The Knowledge Graph is currently being utilised in order to provide rising levels of structured content in both computer and mobile search results, and the new ‘Knowledge Vault’ is expected to succeed it through the provision of vastly more detailed and comprehensive content.

Industry analysts have argued that the new “Knowledge Vault” could have significant long-term ramifications for third party publishers, who have seen Google’s necessity to use their services, diminish increasingly in the past few years.

Impressively promoted as the “largest store of knowledge in human history” the new database is currently being amassed from informational content all over the net, and is compellingly doing so without involving any human editing.

“Knowledge Vault autonomously gathers and merges information from across the web into a single base of facts about the world, and the people and objects in it,” says prominent technology magazine, New Scientist.

An estimated 1.6 billion facts have allegedly been amassed by Google and incorporated into the new database, with an actual score assigned to each of them individually as a marker of how accurate they are. At present, just over 15% of the informational content they have assembled is believed to constitute ‘confident facts’.

The final release and official incorporation of the new ‘Knowledge Vault’ will be a huge step for Google, who have made it clear that they intend to eventually develop a futuristic search engine that is able to answer any query at all, with human-like semantic inference refined to produce the most accurate of results. It is possible that its introduction would be more revolutionary than its predecessors when considering the wealth of possibilities it opens up in both the application, computing and mobile landscapes.

The New Scientist were keen to promote the database as the future of AI applications, inter-machine communication, augmented reality, analytical models and virtual aide use cases. With the right care, and sufficient developments, it seems safe to assert that it will achieve all of these and more.

However, an introduction of the ‘Knowledge Vault’ anytime soon appears unlikely considering that Google only recently confirmed that it is currently in the midst of conducting tests on a new interface for the local knowledge graph. The search engine giants outlined that they are seeking to change their current local carousel interface into something more vertically orientated, rather than its existing horizontal landscape.