Tuesday, 25 April 2017

Week 4 [24-30.04.2017] Fact Check – Google is becoming capable of validating authenticity of search results

The Internet is a great thing, right? Since its beginning all the information we have sought is within reach of a few clicks. We can get answers to all awkward, weird and disturbing questions by simply Googling them. We just type a phrase, hit ‘enter’ and here we go, there is an answer! But… is it?


Has it ever happened to you that you found information that you knew it was fake? It’s very easy to validate it if you know something by heart, if you’re a specialist in the field. But what if you’re Googling something which you have no clue about? Have you ever thought of this? The websites you might find may contain information which is not necessarily true. No worries anymore, because of Google Fact Check! 


Source: https://www.purepc.pl/inne/google_jest_gotowe_do_walki_z_nieprawdziwymi_informacjami


How does it work? I’d expect some sophisticated algorithm building page ‘credibility’ rank showing suggestions that some of the websites may contain fake information. Apparently Google has chosen, less digital way of resolving the problem. They stared cooperating with 115 companies and organizations such as PoliFact and Scopes which take care of validating information on the Internet. Each time you Google a phrase, you see Fact Check tags showing you credibility of the information and agency responsible for information validation.

Obviously it’s not possible to assess each and every information on the Internet, therefore only selected search results will contain the Fact Check tag. Moreover, it may happen that certain information will be assessed in a different way by different agencies. That’s why Google claims that tags are only opinions. Last but not least – credibility assessment will not influence position or presence on the search results list – it will still be fully based on the Page Rank system.



Source: https://www.purepc.pl/inne/google_jest_gotowe_do_walki_z_nieprawdziwymi_informacjami

Google has known history of ‘managing’ search results – getting rid of inconvenient information and promoting its own services at the cost of competition. Shall we fully trust the giant this time? I believe it’s up to us.

Personally I find the problem very serious. While 30 years ago the major issue was availability of the information in general, now we stepped into a completely different era. We’re flooded with information. The problem is no more to find the information, but to validate it. Not only in the context of being true or not.  The greatest challenge is to verify the quality of information. Nowadays everybody is a creator and may fill the Internet with his/her own creativeness. Very often it’s a low quality content. It’s all gathered up and mixed on search result lists. Each time we look up for information we have to cross check the results or very often to challenge them with traditional sources of information such as books. The process of assessing the results is energy and time consuming. But… it is what it is.

1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?

2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?

3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?

19 comments:


  1. In today's world we have to be careful what we are watching on the internet. It is easy for hackers and phishing companies to deprive us of money. We should not trust the google search engine because it is something like positioning websites - businesses are paying a lot of money to have their web site be first in the google search .

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  2. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?

    If Google takes you to one specific place when you're looking for a piece of computer - then you automatically recognize that other valuable places are gone, Google score is the only one, the best and the flawless - is it worth to look for other sources of reliable information?

    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?

    Yes, I agree as much as possible. I am often looking for issues, but to get the information without error, I have to put together a few pages or information from other sources to make something meaningful and credible. At this time people can create their blogs and throw their theses, opinions and anything they want. It is impossible to verify all of these information.

    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?
    The majority of users typing in Google treats every given information as true, which knowledgeable Internet users know, is not always obvious. It seems to me that the internet will be full of unnecessary content. We need to be able to verify and choose only information from trusted sources. As I mentioned above, maybe companies will establish a solution that will monitor information collected on the Internet.

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  3. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?
    – I'd be ok if assessing credibility was just additional feature. Let's say I'm googling something infotamtion that I have no clue about and it's totally new for me. Then I'd use assesing, but just as a hint rather that sure thing. I see a threat that people will be taking google assesing for granted. Even if it's google it will assess wrongly sometimes.

    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?
    – Not really. Just use news site with firm history like New York Times. If some news seems to you as fake just google it :) If the news are true, they would be for sure in more news site.

    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?
    – Even today we see silly images, news which are totally fake. They are funny and easy to determine as fake for an adult, but it's not so easy for kids/teenagers. That can become bigger issue in the future.

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  4. Fact is that not all information on the internet is real. But I think that is better way than TV. Internet gave us easy life. In the past we had to walk to library. Of course we never got rid of the problem of false information and manipulation. I never think about alternative way to fight this problem. People should delete and block all false people.

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  5. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?
    I am not fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results. I think they should pay us for that and it should
    be restricted very extreme. All our activity is saved in big storages, which help Google and other big international companies to
    have some extra information about our prefereneces, nowadays it is know in a term called big data.

    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?
    Yes, it is a big problem, especially for kids which are grop up in the Internet ages. They think that the Internet told them true, but is not
    right. It is not only problem for yung generation but also for us, mature people. We want to have access to high quality dat. I think it is not easy
    and this issue are should be resolved as result of coopertion between countries.

    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?
    I afraid that goverments will know about everything about us. To have more money they will be sell some information to companies, which
    will be directed us to achieve their sales gols. It is sounds awfull, but it can be true.

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  6. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?

    Google is the leader of artificial intelligence. I think smart and delicate recomedation are good, but we should use other webplatform for finding informations. Each of important info must be confirmed in independant sources. Google Company can manipulate of search results. This is important danger.

    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?.

    Yes, Todays internet, especially social feeds have many fake and unlesses informations. This is horrible. We don`t habit of checking infomations credibility.

    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?

    Bots, bots is everywhere. We should be learn a distinguish bots from people. AI is the most dangerous new technology in internet.

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  7. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?
    Yes I;m fine with google statement, because I always trying to look deeper in information in some other pages or even in books. If you write an essay you have to be sure of information you work with. If you use only google search, it may destroy your essay or even your knowledge about some issues.
    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?
    Yes it is a very, very, very big problem nowadays, but if we want to change something we must stop to put fake informations to the Net and start to search information written by scientists or in books.
    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?
    Today I see two huge problems: low educated people, and stop fighting with fake informations. Monika D

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  8. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?

    In my opinion it is fine. Of course it can be dangerous with reference to collecting data but it can be solved by making it "optional".

    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?

    In my opinion not really. It is easy to check whether some information is truth or not. You can just look on other websites and check.

    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?

    Information can be harder to validate by children in my opinion. It can be big problem in the future.

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  9. 1. No, but it had to become. It threatens our privacy, but who forbids us from using a secure search engine like duckduckgo?
    2. It depends on how much real information you need to have. On the other hand there are mistakes in books too :)
    3. I guess you have to ask google for information about it :)
    Honestly nobody knows how far we will go

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  10. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here? Google are huge company, so in my opinion they carry of their image. Therefore I don't see possibility of danger.

    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it? Freedom of word and connection to the worldwide information is faster and more simple than before. I don't know, that is any way to stop this process. Because, when stopped availability to the network, we could stopped fake news. However in my opinion, it is unattainable.

    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years? Manipulation of information at Internet, we could also see at ASZ. dziennik on their Facebook profile it is a great marketing method to create, better or worse image of companies on Facebook.

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  11. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?
    I'm not fine with that, but we have little influence of what Google is doing. Search results will be better, that's for sure, but it's one of the big corporations that is closely cooperating with NSA - so it's possible that in future not only precise algorithms will judge of the search results.

    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?
    It is a problem. If you want to find something in Internet, you surely will, but it's often just gibberish. The brightest example of this is when you search for illness symptoms - most of the time you're ending on some kind of tumour.

    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?
    The problem is that everyone can place some content in Internet. You don't have to be rocket scientist to place article about physics aspects of rocket launching in windy weather. The frequency of this kind of useless information will increase. I now have problems with finding what I'm looking for in Internet - in 5-10 years it could be impossible.

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  12. I guess it’s not the problem who validates the credibility, but the fact whether they do it thruthfully or not. It’s not an uncommon practice to change the „reality” to suit somebody’s standards or beliefs – even if you watch TV and news on two different, opposing channels you might get different stories and „facts”.

    There is lots of threats – it is even said that a lie said enough times becomes the truth. Once Google validates something and people will take it for granted because „hey, it is GOOGLE, they’re so big they cannot be wrong, right?” mindset kicks in, it makes a perfect opening for creating false information and then claiming that it’s valid.

    The problem of fake or low quality information is real for sure. You can try to look up some information and then it turns out to be a bait, satiric site or the information is just copied and pasted to tons of different sites. As for the alternative solutions? As long as you can find that info in the books, go to the library.

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  13. 1. Yes I’m ok with that. Google is a huge company, I don’t see any potential threats
    2. Yes, I agree, sometimes we have to spend a lot of time searching to be sure informations are real
    3. We should ask google, it know’s everything ;)

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  14. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?

    I am not fine, but I accept it. Issue is to not reject these manipulations, but trying to be visible and transparent. It is not the matter of manipulation, but how to treat flood of uncertain information. As long rules are transparent, I think it is OK.

    Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?

    It is real problem. Let see US elections. Macedonian young people has possibility to influence opinion of USA citizens.
    My idea is to gain responsibility in Internet and no possibility to exchange anonymous user’s opinion.

    Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?

    In my opinion there is one challenge with serious issues. As long Internet is global, as long any power can have influence on whole Internet. Again, example of American election -> Russia tried to influence US citizens to vote to preferred candidate.

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  15. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?

    For my opinion is hard to answer of this question. We don't have full view of present situation. We don't know how algorithms works and how they filter content.

    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?

    I don't know.

    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?

    Main problem is volience of freedom and the possibility of spreading propaganda.

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  16. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?
    Yes I'm fine. It's a Google product, so I can accept that they can give better possition in results for their own products. But it is important to still develop algorithms and overall process to avoid any cheating.

    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?
    It's a big problem. Just look few years back - you just entered your "question" to Google and received great "answer". And nowadays? You need to check some more or less stupid websites and believe that somewhere will be answer for your question... Solution? Bans. Google should ban not only stupid or spam-websites, but also their owners - to avoid situation when they create many low-quality websites or click-baits...

    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?
    The problem is in still growing number of websites, stupid articles, spam and click-baits. It's really hard to check it all...

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  17. 1.Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?
    In the situation where we are masters in specific matter we are able to know if the provided information is correct or not. In the opposite situation we need to relay on Google entirely.
    2.Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?
    What everyone should take into account is the website they are taking their information from. We need to consider the source of the information. Whether it is a reliable portal created by the professionals or a discussion forum where everyone gives their opinion rather than proof-based arguments.
    3.Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?
    Since the Internet is fully opened for everyone to upload their thoughts, it is inevitable that there will be more and more unchecked information. We keep turning ourselves into checking a phrase rather than reading the full context, which leads to limited knowledge in more and more areas of professional topics and everyday living.

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  18. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?
    I'm okay with that. It's a good idea, because it would give next opportunity to check quality of informations. Of course, it could give also a possibility to disciminate less popular opinions and ideas and promote sites that colaborate with Google.

    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?
    Nowadays, people absorb more information in one day then a human in Middle Ages in one year. That's why their quality is so important. We should remember that those informations create our vision of world. We could say that if they are fake, our world is fake.
    To check quality of informations, we could focus on researches and bibliography they post below articles. If there are sources like universities' researches, it will be better quality then one's opinion.
    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?
    It could be hard to stay open-minded, validation could focus on one version of checked information without seeing alternative options.
    In 5 years people could live in society based on manipulated information, ruled by thiew people in power. Society would radicalize.

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  19. 1. Are you fine with Google assessing credibility of the search results? What kind of potential threats do you see here?

    Hmm, I think it is better than nothing. Even that kind of information can help us to find information we are looking for faster. I also think that resolving problem in this way can produce many mistakes. Yes, I don't trust non digital validation :P

    2. Is the problem of fake or low quality information real in your opinion? What kind of alternative solutions would you propose to solve it?

    Of course we have! Especially with low quality. As You said, nowadays everyone can "create" content and published it to the Internet. It is very big problem for people who are looking for subjects new for them.

    3. Can you foresee any upcoming challenges related to validation or manipulation of information on the Internet? What kind of problems may we be facing in next 5-10 years?

    The biggest upcoming challenge related to validation is nonstop growing low quality content on the net in my opinion. As I told before we are facing right now with that we have to have a free evening to search Internet for interesting data. How it will look in next 5-10 years? Nightmare... Maybe would be better and especially faster to use book... ;)

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