Google announced today the gradual release of a new search feature which will help users get more reliable results. Search results in Google will now start showing an icon which when you click on it will display more information about the source site without having to actually visit it. Information about sites are fetched from Wikipedia, yes Wikipedia. Apparently Google has more trust in Wikipedia entries than most of us do.
When information about a given site is not available from Wikipedia, Google will show you the last time the site was indexed. It will also show you whether the connection to the site is secured via HTTPs protocol or not. “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 useful for you.”
As for sites that feature job listings or local business listing, users will be able to see “see a description about how Google sources that information from sites on the web, or from businesses themselves, and presents it in a helpful format.”
As for us in education, this new feature will definitely help students access information from more reliable sources. Making meta-knowledge about sites readily accessible from the search results page will definitely help students weed out fake and unreliable sources. The new feature started rolling out today in “English in the U.S. on desktop, mobile web and the Google App on Android.”
Courtesy of The Next Web
