what you need to know
- April 2nd is International Fact-Checking Day, and Google is celebrating the day by expanding existing functionality and launching new ones.
- “About this image” and “About this page” in Google Search are now available in more than 40 languages around the world.
- The Fact Check Browser is coming out of beta and will serve as a way for journalists and other fact checkers to view a compilation of previous fact checks on a specific topic.
April Fools’ Day is over, and ironically, April 2nd is International Fact-Checking Day. If you’ve ever wished there was a way to determine whether all the April Fools’ Day pranks you see online are legit or fake, you’re in luck. In honor of International Fact-Checking Day, Google is expanding the scope of some of the most useful tools in Google Search to verify facts, images, and sources. Additionally, Google announced today that its Fact Check Explorer is coming out of beta and will be made widely available.
About this picture and About this page These are not new features, but are currently available in more than 40 languages worldwide. These tools are built directly into Google Search so users can quickly and easily find more information about results. For example, if you open the details menu of an image in Search and click on the “About this image” option, you will be able to learn more about the image and its source. Specifically, Google says “About this image” can list the following types of information about the image in the search:
- The history of images
- How other websites use and describe images
- Metadata attached to the image
Hopefully the information on this page will help you discern whether an image is real or fake. This information can reveal whether the image was generated by artificial intelligence or came from an untrusted source.
Similarly, About this page and About this result Tells you more about a given website before you decide to click on a Google search result. This can reveal whether the website is trustworthy, if it is perceived to be biased in some way, and who owns the website.Google pulls information from Wikipedia’s description of the site and other mentions of the site around the web to curate About the source result.
Google will continue to display articles from fact-checking sources in Google search results. However, it also publicly provides specialized tools for members of the media and fact-checkers.Although fact checking browser Previously available in beta, it is now out of beta and available on Google’s fact-checking tool site.
Essentially, fact-checking browsers act as a hub for fact-checking content on the web. When you search for fact checks on Google Search, the results may be filled with irrelevant or untrustworthy content. In contrast, Fact Check Browser exclusively contains fact-checking articles from trusted sources and independent organizations around the world. The fact-checking explorer also works with images, and entering an image URL can quickly show whether it has been included in a previous survey.
All of these tools and features are available starting today, so you can try them out on Google Search right away.