We have learned many things over the last year but one of the lessons we feel is most important is that as a society we don’t know everything about everything.
This was most apparent during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when contradictory statements were being made about the efficacy of wearing a mask.
But as the months wore on, we learned more and Google is seemingly cognisant of this fact as it reportedly begins testing a new feature.
According to a report from Recode, Google is testing a feature that will notify users when a search they conduct doesn’t offer up reliable results.
The search giant confirmed to Recode it is testing that feature and that users will be shown a message when a search for a developing story is conducted. That message reads, in part, “If this topic is new, it can sometimes take time for results to be added by reliable sources.”
Importantly, Danny Sullivan, a public liaison for Google Search, explains that the notice isn’t meant to convey that the information is right or wrong – but rather that the situation is in a state of flux.
“Someone had gotten this police report video released out in Wales, and it’s had a little bit bit of press coverage. But there’s still not a lot about it,” Sullivan explained to Recode to give an example of when this feature would be employed. “But people are probably searching for it, they may be going around on social media – so we can tell it’s starting to trend. And we can also tell that there’s not a lot of necessarily great stuff that’s out there. And we also think that maybe new stuff will come along,” the liaison added.
We think this is a great idea because unfortunately some folks still believe conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 that were debunked months ago. Unfortunately, a lot of the information that fuels these theories did come from reliable sources, which at the time didn’t have the full picture. Not that we currently have the full picture but our understanding has evolved substantially in the last year.
The feature is of course still being tested and we suspect that there will be discussion surrounding its implementation ahead of and once it starts a wider rollout.
