Google Search has announced three new tools to help users verify images and sources online. These tools are designed to help people better understand the context and credibility of the information they are seeing.
About this image is rolling out in Search in English globally. It gives people an easy way to check the credibility + context of images they encounter online, including the image’s history, how it’s described and used on websites, and the image’s metadata.https://t.co/zrNVGCdaHh
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) October 25, 2023
The first tool, called About this image, provides information about an image’s history, how it is used on other websites, and its metadata. This information can help users assess the claims being made about an image and see evidence and perspectives from other sources.
The second tool, Fact Check Explorer, allows users to search for fact checks of images and topics. This tool is powered by claim review markup, which helps Google detect and display fact checks. Fact Check Explorer also provides an overview of the different contexts associated with an image and their evolution over time.
The third tool is a new beta feature of the FactCheck Claim Search API, which allows approved journalists and fact checkers to search the fact-check image corpus on Fact Check Explorer via an API. This will make it easier for them to investigate images and build unique products for their readers.
In addition, Google is starting to experiment with how generative AI can be used to generate descriptions of sources. These AI-generated descriptions will show up in the “more about this page” section of About this result for some sources where there isn’t an existing overview from Wikipedia or the Google Knowledge Graph.
These new tools are part of Google’s ongoing efforts to help people better understand the information they see online. In a 2023 study by the Poynter Institute’s digital media initiative MediaWise, 70% of respondents reported not being totally or very confident in their ability to tell when online images are authentic and reliable.
Google’s new tools are designed to help people address this challenge by providing them with more information about the images and sources they encounter online. By giving people the tools they need to verify information, Google is helping to make the internet a more reliable and trustworthy place.