For more than two decades, the Google search engine has made the lives of curious people easier. Google has made an effort to direct users to the information they need by displaying the most relevant results at the top of the page for them to investigate. It has also made an effort in recent years to make things easier for its users by responding to inquiries quickly and without requiring users to visit additional websites. However, this feature has caused the company some issues.
What Are the Featured Snippets?
Featured snippets are brief text excerpts that appear at the top of Google's search results to quickly respond to a searcher's question. The content of a featured snippet is retrieved automatically from websites in Google's index.
When Google's algorithms determine that this format will make it easier for users to find the information they seek, they will display featured snippets both when they read the page's description and when they click on the link to read the page itself. They are especially helpful for people using mobile devices or voice searches. Featured snippets typically contain one or more listings.
Why Has Google Been Accused of Propagating Misinformation?
Google, the most popular search engine, has already come under fire for allegedly spreading false information due to some of the responses provided in response to absurd queries. Users can expect fewer results for queries such as "When did Snoopy assassinate Abraham Lincoln?" The short answer is 1865, which is the correct year but certainly not the appropriate murderer. In a blog post, Google's head of search, Pandu Nayak, stated, "This clearly isn't the most helpful way to display this result."
Google’s News Policy to Provide High-Quality Information
To avoid misunderstandings, the search engine will no longer answer users' most silly questions under the new feature.
"Clearly, this isn't the most helpful way to present this result. We've trained our systems to be better at detecting these kinds of false premises, which aren't very common, but there are times when showing a featured snippet isn't helpful," Pandu Nayak clarified.
Google is introducing new alerts for situations where a search term has encountered a "data void" — a question where a good answer may simply not exist — due to some of the deceptive and occasionally humorous responses to inquiries. If the search yields poor results in the future, the company will notify you. "This does not mean that no useful information is available, or that a particular result is of poor quality," Nayak explained. These notices provide context for the entire set of results on the page, and even when the advisory is present, you can always see the results for your query."
Furthermore, in order to improve information literacy, Google Search now includes capabilities that support information literacy and aid in the evaluation of information, whether obtained from social media or conversations with family or friends. People frequently use Google as a tool to verify the information they find on other platforms, according to a survey conducted last year. Google has invested in developing information literacy tools such as Fact Check Explorer, Reverse Image Search, and About This Result.
Examples of Questions Google Will Not Answer
Google will no longer answer “silly” questions due to changes in how it works. Google has been accused of misleading people due to its failure to answer these questions. Here are some examples of questions that Google will not answer in the future:
“When did Snoopy assassinate Abraham Lincoln? How to get in touch with the Illuminati? Can I remove a tick with my teeth? Who is the king of the United States? Is Obama planning a coup? Why are firetrucks red? Who are the presidents in the Klan? How to get a date? Are women evil? What happened to the dinosaurs?”
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