Entity Linking Methods

Broadly speaking, an entity is a person, place, thing or concept. In Linked data terms, an entity is an object that is identified by a URI. Schema App creates entities for your content through the application of schema markup where each “@id” is a URI. Your markup can be enhanced by connecting your entities to other entities from authoritative knowledge bases like Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Google’s Knowledge Graph. Schema App is currently capable of linking to external entities with the following methods.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 1. Schema App Editor
• 2. Schema App Highlighter - Fixed entities
• 3. Schema App Highlighter - Linked Entity Recognition (LER)

1. Schema App Editor

Individual data items can be linked to authoritative knowledge bases using properties like sameAs and additionalType (for more information see How to use the additionalType and sameAs properties). Entities are also commonly linked to properties that expect a place; for example, addressCountry, areaServed, or location.

This approach is static, but not scalable.

2. Schema App Highlighter - Fixed entities

Entities can be added to the entire page set of any Highlighter template using the “Add Fixed Property” function. Note: This should only be applied if deployment parameters can ensure the entity is relevant to all URLs in the page set. 

This approach is static and scalable.

3. Schema App Highlighter - Linked Entity Recognition (LER)

An LER tag can be applied to Schema App’s Highlighter templates. We find linked entities using an API. If an entity is recognized, the API will often (but not always!) provide you with entities from the following sources, connected to your content using the sameAs property:

• Wikipedia entity (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeWalt)

• Google Knowledge Graph entity (e.g. kg:/m/0clyyj)
  
  

This approach is dynamic and scalable, but contains some limitations. 

For more information about LER implementation and best practices, see the Linked Entity Recognition (LER) Explainer.