Freebase sending incorrect data to Google search

[David Brodbeck]

How can I get out-of-date information in Freebase fixed?

I'm trying to fix some incorrect, out-of-date information being shown in Google's sidebar search results.  I was told this data is coming from Freebase, and sent there, but of course I can't edit it because Freebase is in read-only mode.

Having exhausted all other avenues, I'm wondering how I get this corrected.  If Google is going to keep displaying this info it seems like they ought to provide some way to update it.  If Freebase is not going to fully shut down, can the read-only restriction be at least selectively relaxed?

[Thad Guidry]

David,

Freebase is gone.  What you see still up and running is just a shell and will be turned off after certain individuals have fulfilled their destinies. (or something like that) :)

In all seriousness, Freebase cannot be written to any longer and will never be brought back to its full glory. (The data, some of it, will be migrated over to Wikidata sometime in the future, they hope "this year".)

If you find something wrong on a Knowledge Graph Panel, then use the Feedback link under the panel itself whenever you have the topic pulled up that is concerning you.

You can also ask in the Google Webmaster Forums for more questions and they are very helpful folks there that will respond, eventually.

I do not work for Google.  I am a ghostly past life volunteer of Freebase. :)

All the best,

Thad

+ThadGuidry

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[David Brodbeck]

On Thu, Jul 9, 2015 at 7:05 PM, Thad Guidry <thadg...@gmail.com> wrote:

If you find something wrong on a Knowledge Graph Panel, then use the Feedback link under the panel itself whenever you have the topic pulled up that is concerning you.

I have been sending feedback once a week or so for over a year.  I'm pretty sure that link is a placebo.

[David Brodbeck]

BTW, I asked in the Search forum, that was how I found out the error was coming from Freebase, and that it was not easily fixable due to Freebase being in read-only mode.  I feel like I'm trapped in a bit of a Catch-22, since data is being pulled from something that I can't edit because data isn't supposed to be being pulled from it anymore.  The fact that both entities are part of Google makes it especially bizarre.

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[James Kittock]

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[James Kittock]

Sorry for blank response. David, what's the information you are trying to update?

[David Brodbeck]

Hi, James.  Sorry for the delayed reply -- I've been busy at San Diego Comic Con.

My wife legally changed her name about eight years ago.  This is not particularly a secret, and it's not a problem if Google brings up her old name for stuff she published back then.  However, Google is reassigning the authorship of *newly* published books to her *old* name, apparently because Freebase thinks it's the primary one.

A good example is if you search on the title "phoebe and her unicorn".  You will notice that the Wikipedia entry quoted in the sidebar, and all the search entries, show it as being authored by "Dana Simpson" or "Dana Claire Simpson", but Google changes it to "David Craig Simpson" in their "See Results About" sidebar entry for the book.

Another very strange example is if you search on "Dana Claire Simpson".  You'll get a sidebar full of information referring to her by that name, but with a big "David Craig Simpson" header on top.

Again, the name change itself is not something we're trying to hide, but it's awkward and potentially confusing to have her old name substituted for her new one in these contexts.

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[James Kittock]

Hi David,

Thanks for taking the time to explain the situation. I see that the issues with the name have been reported multiple times using the feedback link under the card. We receive an overwhelming volume of feedback and much of it is nonsense, so issues are chosen for review based on an algorithm that weighs many factors. For whatever reason, the feedback on your wife's name has never been chosen for review. I just reported it myself, so we can see if that helps. 

Regards,

James

[Tom Morris]

On Sun, Jul 12, 2015 at 12:22 AM, David Brodbeck <gu...@gull.us> wrote:

A good example is if you search on the title "phoebe and her unicorn".  You will notice that the Wikipedia entry quoted in the sidebar, and all the search entries, show it as being authored by "Dana Simpson" or "Dana Claire Simpson", but Google changes it to "David Craig Simpson" in their "See Results About" sidebar entry for the book.

Another very strange example is if you search on "Dana Claire Simpson".  You'll get a sidebar full of information referring to her by that name, but with a big "David Craig Simpson" header on top.

Again, the name change itself is not something we're trying to hide, but it's awkward and potentially confusing to have her old name substituted for her new one in these contexts.

It's not much consolation, but this is a limitation/weakness of the underlying model which only has a single "preferred name" for any given entity.  There is (currently) no notion of a temporally or contextually preferred name.  For an author, the choice of Twain/Clemens/Snodgrass should really match what's on the title page of the book, even though they're all the same person.  Libraries take the opposite tack from Freebase and have separate author records for each pseudonym, which has its own set of problems.

Ideally, the Freebase automatic update algorithms should have picked this up years ago while it was still since both MusicBrainz (the original source of the old name) and Wikipedia both moved to and agreed on the new name.  This also made it difficult to fuse the OpenLibrary related record http://www.freebase.com/m/05xp07_

All water under the bridge now.  It'll likely be years before we get back to the (relatively primitive) capabilities that Freebase offered.

Tom

[David Brodbeck]

Just checked this evening, and the problem is fixed. Thanks so much for your patient help, guys. It's greatly appreciated both by me and by Dana.

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[TJ Allard]

Wow! Now that is what I call some great customer service! haha Seriously, I've never seen a google issue corrected so quickly and I didn't realize people actually looked at those feedback messages! I always thought that by saying they read all the forms it was Google just being polite, and that when I submitted feedback to freebase it would just go into the ether. I figured they would get thousands a day and no way would people be able to handle that load. WTG! 

[Eric Gehler]

I am a TC in Websearch..

We have many cases over in the websearch  Help forum that deal with bad data on Freebase effecting the KG and I actually worked on Davids  case

https://productforums.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!topic/websearch/2SoIhf9RuPo

There really needs to be a upgraded solution for Freebase issues. or at least some of the  KG staff looking in on the Webseach forums or a better way to get the TRUE stuff to the right people rather then Flood Feedback and add to the mess. Been work on case like this since January 2015 and there are tons.

On Monday, July 13, 2015 at 1:24:50 PM UTC-4, James Kittock wrote:

[TJ Allard]

Thanks Eric! I used your send feedback with the correct info to fix my issue, and I'll keep doing it every 3 days like you suggested. Hopefully it works. 

Best,

TJ

[Eric Gehler]

TJ if you want to open a Post  here.   https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/websearch

I can help as well with feedback and add it to my Huge List  of issues to Present to the KG team soon. ( working on that anyway)