How Google Puts a Price on Data Quality

High Data Quality is imperative to today’s Search & Social Engines. In conjunction with the recent shift in search to a more semantic paradigm (even providing direct answers to search queries) lies the corollary that Search is now conducted directly over data itself along with (or in place of) search over documents. Inaccurate, erroneous and poor quality data is no longer tolerated either by the end consumer or the Premier Search Engines themselves. Google literally puts a price on data quality, with Google shopping in particular having well defined Data Quality policies and procedures. Product Data providers are issued a “Quality Score.” Those with a high data quality score will be rewarded with benefits such as paying less for product advertisements, whereas those who are in violation of the data quality guidelines are heavily penalized. This talk will address:

• The landscape prior to the Google Data Quality mandate
• Google’s Data Quality policies and Data Quality Score
• Specific Data Quality Violations and penalties imposed
• How and why this has been such a lucrative business model for Google

Barbara Starr, Founder and principal of SemanticFuse, was recruited to the United States to build expert trading systems on Wall Street from a teaching position while studying for her doctoral degree in South Africa. She has worked in the Semantic Technology arena ever since. She provides consulting services such as Semantic Search Engine Optimization, Semantic Technology consulting, Product Feed Optimization and Streamlining for e-commerce sites and enterprise level businesses. After working with Overstock.com she developed a passion for e-commerce and now works with major organizations in the e-commerce arena, including GS1 US. Barbara is a columnist for SearchEngineLand, a governing board member of the Semantic Computing Consortium and industry Co-Chair for the IEEE international conference on Semantic Computing. She is also a frequent speaker at conferences such as SMX (East & West), SemTechBiz, EDW & others. Barbara founded and manages the Semantic Web San Diego Meetup.