Glossary
Open Knowledge Format
Open Knowledge Format is Google's announced structured data specification (version 0.2, July 2026) designed to represent entity relationships and knowledge assertions in a machine-readable format optimized for AI consumption. Unlike Schema.org markup — which primarily describes page content for search engines — Open Knowledge Format defines how entities, facts, and their interconnections should be structured so that AI models, answer engines, and knowledge graphs can ingest, verify, and cite information with higher precision. The format supports entity association declarations, provenance tracking, and confidence scoring, enabling publishers to explicitly define how their content relates to known entities in Google's Knowledge Graph. For SEO practitioners and content marketers, Open Knowledge Format represents the next evolution beyond traditional structured data: it shifts the optimization target from winning blue-link rankings to being the authoritative source an AI cites when synthesizing answers. Early adoption requires implementing the format's JSON-LD schema alongside existing Article and Organization markup, with particular emphasis on clearly defined entity relationships and verifiable factual claims.