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Please be a proponent for veracity metrics on news stories and "viral articles" ... it's about time we as users get to see the measure of reliability and trustw

by sova 9y ago

Please be a proponent for veracity metrics on news stories and "viral articles" ... it's about time we as users get to see the measure of reliability and trustworthiness of search results. Cheers, may your new role bring you great happiness, and may the quality of our lives increase positively as a result.

sullivandanny 9y ago
This types of concerns are very much part of the remit.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> Please be a proponent for veracity metrics on news stories and "viral articles" ... it's about time we as users get to see the measure of reliability and trustworthiness of search results. Google does lots of things I like, but I see close to zero evidence that they have developed the competency to act as an arbiter on any of veracity, reliability, or trustworthiness of news articles (or even less-timely information on the web.) Relevance and my likelihood to be interested, yes. But those other things...no. And that's even aside from the question of whether Google using its dominant search position to inject editorial commentary on search results is a good thing or, in the long term, a bigger threat than the one it would be addressing.
- MBCook 9y ago
  I agree. But given the position they hold I think they need to develop this skill. It’s very clear that ‘throw an algorithm up without thinking of abuse/negative consequences and fix it later’ works terribly.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    I'd rather Google provide a framework to integrate third-party ratings; we don't need a monopoly arbiter of online truth that's also a monopoly search provider.
- amoorthy 9y ago
  We built a Chrome extension to help users evaluate the quality of an article's citations and suggest better alternatives. This is Beta; the algorithm will soon go beyond citations and our recommendations will become more frequent. But I'd be grateful for any feedback you all have if you take a look. Thank you. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/civikowl/clbbiejjicefdjlblgnojolgbideklkp?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/civikowl/clbbiejji...
londons_explore 9y ago
I wouldn't trust Google to act as "verifier", but I would trust Google to aggregate and pass on veracity metric from other sources. For example, Google could say "68% of experts appointed by the New York Times approve of the content of this page". Individuals could then choose which group(s) of experts they want to become part of the ranking for their personal news feed.

by sova 9y ago

sullivandanny 9y ago

This types of concerns are very much part of the remit.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> Please be a proponent for veracity metrics on news stories and "viral articles" ... it's about time we as users get to see the measure of reliability and trustworthiness of search results. Google does lots of things I like, but I see close to zero evidence that they have developed the competency to act as an arbiter on any of veracity, reliability, or trustworthiness of news articles (or even less-timely information on the web.) Relevance and my likelihood to be interested, yes. But those other things...no. And that's even aside from the question of whether Google using its dominant search position to inject editorial commentary on search results is a good thing or, in the long term, a bigger threat than the one it would be addressing.

MBCook 9y ago
I agree. But given the position they hold I think they need to develop this skill. It’s very clear that ‘throw an algorithm up without thinking of abuse/negative consequences and fix it later’ works terribly.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  I'd rather Google provide a framework to integrate third-party ratings; we don't need a monopoly arbiter of online truth that's also a monopoly search provider.
amoorthy 9y ago
We built a Chrome extension to help users evaluate the quality of an article's citations and suggest better alternatives. This is Beta; the algorithm will soon go beyond citations and our recommendations will become more frequent. But I'd be grateful for any feedback you all have if you take a look. Thank you. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/civikowl/clbbiejjicefdjlblgnojolgbideklkp?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/civikowl/clbbiejji...

londons_explore 9y ago

I wouldn't trust Google to act as "verifier", but I would trust Google to aggregate and pass on veracity metric from other sources. For example, Google could say "68% of experts appointed by the New York Times approve of the content of this page". Individuals could then choose which group(s) of experts they want to become part of the ranking for their personal news feed.