Without a doubt, fake news has become a spotlight issue lately. The reason for this is because people are conned into believing news that isn’t true, but believes it is simply because many others shared the piece of fake news. In Google’s latest optimization attempt to deliver the highest-quality information possible, fact checking is now embedded for Google Search.
The feature was originally released for Google News to help simplify fact check the various news sources. After receiving positive feedback from both users and publishers, Google has extended this function to Google Search result as well.
Google Search results that have been fact checked will have a “Fact Check” section included in the preview.
Note that not all search results currently support this feature. In fact, the fact checks may collect results that have conflicting conclusions, but Google has decided that conflicting fact checks are better than no fact checks.
Even though differing conclusions may be presented, we think it’s still helpful for people to understand the degree of consensus around a particular claim and have clear information on which sources agree.
To make an article compatible, the publisher must follow a few key guidelines.
For publishers to be included in this feature, they must be using the Schema.org ClaimReview markup on the specific pages where they fact check public statements, or they can use the Share the Facts widget developed by the Duke University Reporters Lab and Jigsaw.
More information about Google’s Fact Check is available here.
