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Google Search Finally Adds Information About Video Games

Posted by timothy on from the where's-my-danged-atari-2600?! dept.

An anonymous reader writes Google has expanded its search engine with the capability to recognize video games. If your query references a game, a new Knowledge Graph panel on the right-hand side of Google's search results page will offer more information, including the series it belongs to, initial release date, supported platforms, developers, publishers, designers, and even review scores. Google spokesperson: "With today's update, you can ask questions about video games, and (while there will be ones we don't cover) you'll get answers for console and PC games as well as the most popular mobile apps."

3 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Re:results rather lame by _xeno_ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Since you mention it, if you search for "Doom", you get (amongst others):

    Doom (Video game)
    Developers: GT Interactive Software
    Designers: Tom Hall, Shawn Green, John Romero

    Doom (Video game)
    Developer: id Software
    Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

    So I guess John Carmack never did exist.

    And, yes, "Doom (Video game)" appears twice. The second one is actually "Doom 4."

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
  2. Re:I don't like by redmid17 · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's not really a direct competitor. The smart search answers have 3-4 sentences topically explaining something. Wikipedia has, almost always, exponentially more data.

    'Smart search' is great for questions like "Who won the World Series in 1987" or "How many Grand Theft Auto games are there". It's not so great for "What is the plot of GTA V".

  3. Slidebox Bob by epine · · Score: 3, Informative

    Google didn't do this to make the gamers happy. They did it to make the non gamers happy, because video game culture is ladden with a rich and repurposed vocabulary that constantly shows up when people don't want to see video games in their search results.

    They have to recognize games in order to remove games. Once they've gone that far, throwing up a positive infobox is Slidebox Bob.