I don't see how it could. If you search Google for apple, or even ask a person to give you information about the term "Apple", how can they give you what you need without further context?
The Knowledge "Graph"[1]offers an optional disambiguation parameter you can query with[2]. DuckDuckGo (I swear I'm not a shill or associated with them!) offers a disambiguation API out-of-the-box and integrates some of the RDF material I mentioned below. Here's your "Apple" example[3].
Though, based on the amount of data Google has on the average user, and the fact that you have to sign-up to get an API key which is presumably associated with your search history, Gmail history (either any conversations sent from your Gmail account, or any mail you received dispatched from a Gmail account directed at you), they could easily determine if you meant Apple the fruit [you work for the USDA], Apple the company [you're an engineer in SF with a User-Agent history that's very heavily skewed towards Safari], or etymological basis of Apple, the word [you're a linguist], and disambiguate based on aggregate information. I'd imagine it'd be pretty trivial to do with their existing advertising profile + visit history of any site that either has Google Analytics or a Doubleclick ad.
[1] Again, I struggle to call it a graph, even if it's implemented as a GDB on Google's end, until the end-user traverses it, it's just a Knowledge API.
Really cool, thank! The `types` seem to be a good way to add context if you know, a priori, the type you're looking for.
Google definitely fuses user data into their knowledge graph. This is seen in Freebase's `g.` identifier [1]. I'm curious if they'd influence their publicly facing API algorithms using that data.
Completely agree! I'm curious if the `query` parameter in the API performs well on long queries (with context) or if it needs to be focused to a single entity's name
Though, based on the amount of data Google has on the average user, and the fact that you have to sign-up to get an API key which is presumably associated with your search history, Gmail history (either any conversations sent from your Gmail account, or any mail you received dispatched from a Gmail account directed at you), they could easily determine if you meant Apple the fruit [you work for the USDA], Apple the company [you're an engineer in SF with a User-Agent history that's very heavily skewed towards Safari], or etymological basis of Apple, the word [you're a linguist], and disambiguate based on aggregate information. I'd imagine it'd be pretty trivial to do with their existing advertising profile + visit history of any site that either has Google Analytics or a Doubleclick ad.
[1] Again, I struggle to call it a graph, even if it's implemented as a GDB on Google's end, until the end-user traverses it, it's just a Knowledge API.
[2] https://developers.google.com/knowledge-graph/reference/rest... See: `types'.
[3] http://api.duckduckgo.com/?q=apple&format=json&pretty=1