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Google is testing a new feature to alert people when they search for a topic that may have unreliable results. The move is a notable step by the world’s most popular search engine to provide people with more context on the breaking information that is popular online such as suspected UFO sightings or to develop news stories that are actively evolving.
The new prompt warns users that the results they are seeing are changing rapidly and reads, in part, If this topic is new, it can sometimes take some time for results to be added from trusted sources. Google confirmed to Recode that it started testing the feature about a week ago. Currently, the company says the warning only appears in a small percentage of searches, which tend to be about developing trending topics.
Companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook have often struggled to cope with the high volume of misinformation, conspiracy theories and unverified news sweeping the Internet. In the past, content has largely been avoided in all but the most extreme cases, citing a commitment to the values of free speech. During the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 U.S. election, some companies took unprecedented action to eliminate popular accounts that perpetuate misinformation. But the kind of etiquette that Google is implementing that simply warns users without blocking content reflects a longer-term incremental approach to educating users about questionable or incomplete information.
When someone does a Google search, they were trying to show you the most relevant and reliable information we can, said Danny Sullivan, a public link for Google Search. But we get a lot of things that are completely new,
A UFO search query could trigger the new Google.Google prompt
Sullivan said the warning isn’t saying what you see in search results is right or wrong, but that it’s an evolving situation and more information may come out later.
For example, Sullivan cited a report on a suspected UFO sighting in the UK.
Someone put out this police report video in Wales, and it got some press coverage. But there’s not much yet, Sullivan said. But people are probably looking for it, they might be hanging around on social media, so we can tell it’s starting to trend. And we can also say that there aren’t many necessarily great things out there. And we also think that maybe new things will come,
Other examples of trending search queries that may currently require warning are because it’s britney on lithium and black triangle ufo ocean
The feature builds on Google’s recent efforts to help users with search literacy or to better understand the context of what they’re looking for. In April 2020, the company released a feature that notifies people when there aren’t enough valid matches for their search, and in February 2021, it added an up button next to most search results that show people a Wikipedia’s brief description of the site they are viewing, when available.
Google told Recode that it had searched users on the alert which showed that people found it useful.
The new prompt is also part of a broader trend by major tech companies to give people more context on new information that may prove wrong. Twitter, for example, released a number of features ahead of the 2020 U.S. election warning users if the information they were seeing hadn’t yet been verified.
Some social media researchers welcome added context types like the one Google launched today, including Renee DiResta at the Stanford Internet Observatory who tweeted about the feature. It’s a welcome alternative, they say, to debates about whether or not to ban a particular account or post.
It’s a great way to pause people before taking action or spreading information further, said Evelyn Douek, a researcher at Harvard who studies speech online. It doesn’t involve anyone making judgments about the truth or falsity of any story, it just gives readers more context. In almost all breaking news contexts, the first stories aren’t the complete ones, so it’s good to remind people.
However, there are still some questions as to how this will all work. For example, it’s not clear exactly which sources Google deems trustworthy about a given search result and how many trustworthy sources they need to evaluate before a questionable trending news topic loses its label. As the feature expands more broadly, we can probably expect to see more discussion of how it is implemented.
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