Google launches 'about this result' to evaluate source of information

International feature will also be available in 9 Indian languages to take 'more informed decision' about websites

It is the third month of 2023 and internet misinformation in India in the year is at peak, said Google on Friday as the company announced a new feature to evaluate information.

‘About this result’ will be available internationally and in nine Indian languages: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, and Punjabi.

A Google Search user can know more about the source of a fetched result by clicking on the three vertical dots next to it. Tapping those three dots gives the user a way to learn more about where the information is coming from and how Google’s systems determined that it might be useful for the query.

“With this additional context, you can make a more informed decision about the sites you may want to visit and what results will be most helpful for you,” said Google in a company blog post.

Users can make a more informed decision about websites and results helpful to them. “Similar features exist across all our products, and represent one part of our fight against misinformation,” said the post.

Google India supports Factshala, a collaborative media literacy network led by over 250 journalists and other experts that run workshops and programmes in more than 15 Indian languages. This year, FactShala is launching an incubator program to help media and community organizations experiment with new and innovative formats to aid media literacy and will run a campaign for youth and first time voters in collaboration with 500 colleges.

Google last year supported Ekta, a consortium of six independent fact-checking groups, and Meedan, a global technology non-profit, to run media literacy and fact-checking training and fellowship for journalism students.