Google Lets Users Identify Trusted Sources in Search and News

How can you tell misinformation from trustworthy sources? The only way to track all the materials online is crowdsourcing. To make it easier and more efficient, Google adds new tools in News and Search. With these tools, users can see whether a certain source can be trusted or it is marked as potentially fake.

In 2021, Google implemented a crowd-based rating mechanism named “About this result”. With this feature, users could learn how trustworthy a certain source is. Now, Google enables users to use online fact-checking utilities and sort out the news, with high probability telling truth from lies. If a user is competent enough, they can rate a search result, marking it as reliable or potentially false.

To read the “About the result” section, just click or tap the three-dot menu at the result. As you read the information about the source, you can decide whether the provided information is correct. If you consider it wrong or incomplete, just choose “Send feedback on this info”. The feedback tool enables you to type your text and attach the automatically generated screenshot, in case the content is edited or removed. In the same menu, you can find other familiar tools, like privacy settings or the cached version of the displayed page. They are at the bottom of the “About the result” tab.

As Sundar Pichai says in the blog, this decision was triggered (pun unintended) by the current tragic war in Ukraine, which turns the Internet into yet another battlefield. In addition, April 2 is the International Fact-Checking Day. So, no wonder these tools are implemented just now.

Do you think this tool will do its work correctly? Does it help you to rate the information right now? Can it provoke a feedback war instead of helping find the truth and sort out the fake? Share your thoughts with us in the comments if you please!