Google is testing a new feature to inform 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 give people more contexts about breaking information that's popular online — like suspected UFO sightings or actively developing news stories.
"When anybody does a search on Google, we're trying to show you the most relevant, reliable information," said Danny Sullivan, a Google Search staff, "But we get a lot of things that are entirely new." Sullivan said the notice isn't saying that what you are seeing in search results is right or wrong, but that it's a changing situation, and more information may come out later.
The feature builds on Google's recent efforts to help users with "search literacy" or to better understand contexts about what they're looking up. In April 2020 the company released a feature telling people when there aren't enough good matches for their search. In February 2021, it added an "about" button next to most search results showing people a brief Wikipedia description of the site they're seeing, when available.
Some social media researchers welcome the types of added context like the one Google rolled out today. It's a welcome alternative, they say, to the debates around whether or not to ban a certain account or post. "It's a great way of making people pause before they act on or spread information further," said Evelyn Douck, a researcher at Harvard who studies online speech. "It doesn't involve anyone making judgments about the truth or falsity of any story but just gives the readers more contexts. In almost all breaking news contexts, the first stories are not the complete ones, and so it's good to remind people of that."
There are still some questions about how this all will work, though. For example, it's not clear exactly what sources Google finds to be reliable on a given search results, and how many reliable sources need to weigh in before a questionable trending news topic loses the label. As the feature rolls out more broadly, we can likely expect to see more discussion about how it's carried out.
