Google introduces new tools to combat online misinformation: About this image, Fact Check Explorer, and more

Google has introduced three methods to enhance image understanding and counter misinformation online, including “About this image” for image history, Fact Check Explorer for fact-check assessments, and AI-generated source descriptions for source information in Search Generative Experience. Let’s delve deep into these tools to understand them better:

About this image

Earlier this year, the company unveiled a feature known as “About this image,” which is now being made available to global English language users in Google Search.

This tool offers a simple means for individuals to verify the authenticity and background of images they encounter on the internet. With this tool, users can find the following information:

An image’s history: With “About this image,” users can ascertain the initial appearance of an image in Google Search and identify whether it had been previously published on other websites long before. This is particularly useful in cases where an image is being circulated in connection with a current event but is actually much older, helping to prevent misinformation due to context manipulation.

How other sites use and describe the image: The tool also provides insights into how an image is employed on various web pages, along with opinions and information from other sources, such as news outlets and fact-checking websites. This data proves valuable in evaluating the assertions made about an image and gaining access to evidence and viewpoints from diverse sources.

An image’s metadata: Users can access metadata, when available, that image creators and publishers have included with an image, including markers that may reveal AI generation or enhancement. This metadata will be present in the original file of all Google AI-generated images.

Fact Check Explorer adds image searching

It offer journalists and fact checkers an enhanced method to gain in-depth insights into both images and topics. Utilizing claim review markup to aid in the detection and presentation of fact checks, this tool enables users to discover fact-check assessments conducted by independent organizations worldwide.

The company said in its blogpost, “This summer, we released a global beta version which lets you upload or copy the URL of any image into the Fact Check Explorer and see if it has been featured anywhere in an existing fact check. This version also provides an overview of the different contexts associated with the image and their evolution over time.”

Google has introduced a beta version of the Image Search feature within the FactCheck Claim Search API. This development will soon enable authorized journalists and fact checkers to access the fact-check image database through the Fact Check Explorer using an API. It provides them with the ability to seamlessly integrate this information into their own solutions, streamlining the process of image verification and enabling the creation of distinct products for their audience, claims the American tech giant.

Search Generative Experience offers more information about sources

Users who have opted into the Search Generative Experience (SGE) via Search Labs will now have the ability to view AI-generated descriptions of certain sources. These descriptions will be supplemented with information about reputable websites that discuss the source in question. Google will display links to these websites within the AI-generated source descriptions.

These AI-generated source descriptions will be accessible in the “more about this page” section of the “About this result” for specific sources, particularly in cases where there is no existing overview available from Wikipedia or the Google Knowledge Graph.