Using the Global Embedded Metadata Graph (GEMG), we can track the evolution of specific metadata fields over time. With just a single SQL query we can trace the percentage of news articles GDELT monitors each day that contain an Open Graph Image (OG:IMAGE) metadata tag, providing an image for use when the article is shared on social media:

WITH data AS (
SELECT DATE(date) day, url, metatag.key key FROM `gdelt-bq.gdeltv2.gemg`, unnest(metatags) metatag WHERE DATE(date) >= '2018-07-16' and metatags is not null
)
select day, sum(matchrec) matchrec, sum(totrec) totrec, sum(matchrec)/sum(totrec)*100 perc from (
select day, 0 totrec, count(distinct url) matchrec from data where key='og:image' group by day
UNION ALL
select day, count(distinct url) totrec, 0 matchrec from data group by day
) group by day order by day

You can see the final graph below, showing a slow and steady rise from around 77% of daily news articles to around 84%, demonstrating the ubiquity of the tag in modern digital news coverage.

We hope this inspires you in your own journey through two and a half years of global news metadata!