Google has launched a new feature, fact check, which will add a label next to news stories in search results.
A fact-check feature will appear as a label with Google news search results, alongside with labels for "highly cited," "in-depth" and "opinion."
According to the Duke University Reporter's Lab, fact checking has come into its own. There are more than 100 fact checking sites online including the BBC's Reality Check. Sites which already have a fact-checking service can apply to be included to appear in search results. From the news that Google release, fact check will appear with other news organizations such as such as the International Fact-Checking Network, PolitFact and FullFact.
Google will determine whether a fact check is needed for a news story using the claim review technique. It already labels stories with tabs such as opinion, related and local source. They collectively produce many thousands of fact-checks a year, examining claims around urban legends, politics, health, and the media itself. Google's head of news, Richard Gingras, said
In the seven years since we started labeling types of articles in Google News (e.g., In-Depth, Opinion, Wikipedia), we've heard that many readers enjoy having easy access to a diverse range of content types. Earlier this year, we added a "Local Source" Tag to highlight local coverage of major stories. Today, we're adding another new tag, "Fact check," to help readers find fact checking in large news stories. You'll see the tagged articles in the expanded story box on news.google.com and in the Google News & Weather iOS and Android apps, starting with the U.S. and the U.K.
He also said that are looking for "sites that follow the commonly accepted criteria for fact checks ." Publishers who create fact-checks and would like to see it appear with the "Fact check" tag should use that markup in fact-check articles.
We're excited to see the growth of the Fact Check community and to shine a light on its efforts to divine fact from fiction, wisdom from spin.
