Google rolls out fact-check tool for images globally; all you need to know

To help users find high-quality information about what they see online, Google has rolled out the "About this image" fact-check tool to English language users globally in Search.

Hyderabad: The tech giant, Google,has rolled out the "About this image" fact-check tool to English language users globally in Search. According to the company, the tool is designed to help users verify the credibility and context of online images, providing valuable information. Users will get to discover an image’s history, Metadata and the context users used it with on different sites.

"You can access this tool by clicking on the three dots on an image in Google images results, or by clicking 'more about this page' in the About this result tool on search results," Google said in a blog post on Wednesday.

Image history: An image’s history will allow users to see when an image or similar images may have first been seen by Google Search, and whether it was previously published much earlier on other webpages. This feature will help prevent the misrepresentation of old images as current ones.

Metadata:With an image’s Metadata, users will be able to see metadata -- when available -- that image creators and publishers have added to an image, including fields that may indicate that it has been generated or enhanced by AI.

Fact Check Explorer: This new addition to the existing features serves to assist journalists and fact-checkers in investigating images and topics. It uses claim review markup to find fact checks from independent organisations around the globe. The users will also have the option to check if an image has been featured in a fact check.

In June, the company began testing features using the Fact Check Explorer tool, giving fact-checkers the ability to explore fact-checks, references and other details associated with a particular image.

In addition, the company is experimenting with generative AI to help with the description of sources, for example, a page of an unfamiliar seller or an unknown blog.

Google has made the ‘About this image’ tool available to all English language users in Google Search today, and intends to add more access options in the future. (With IANS inputs)