The new prompt warns users that the results they are seeing are changing quickly, and reads, in part, “If this topic is new, it can sometimes take time for results to be added by reliable sources.” Google confirmed to Recode that it started testing the feature about a week ago.
But the kind of label Google is rolling out — which simply warns users without blocking content — reflects a more long-term incremental approach to educating users about questionable or incomplete information.
“But people are probably searching for it, they may be going around on social media — so we can tell it’s starting to trend.
The feature builds on Google’s recent efforts to help users with “search literacy,” or to better understand context about what they’re looking up.
The new prompt is also part of a larger trend by major tech companies to give people more context about new information that could turn out to be be wrong.
Some social media researchers welcome the types of added context like the one Google rolled out today, including Renee DiResta at the Stanford Internet Observatory who tweeted about the feature.
“It’s a great way of making people pause before they act on or spread information further,” said Evelyn Douek, a researcher at Harvard who studies online speech.
For example, it’s not clear exactly what sources Google finds to be reliable on a given search result, and how many reliable sources need to weigh in before a questionable trending news topic loses the label.
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