When your google search is about some fact, Google often gives you an answer directly.
This is called a Fact Box (see example in attached image).
Many of us just assume that this is the correct answer.
But it is often wrong.
Thread.
This is called a Fact Box (see example in attached image).
Many of us just assume that this is the correct answer.
But it is often wrong.
Thread.
Let's start with Poonam Yadav's height, which, for a while, Google thought was 10 feet. (This has now been fixed) https://twitter.com/_logik/status/1324061973789634560
Google thinks that Central Park's value is 39 trillion dollars. (It still shows this value).
Check out this lovely thread of how that value has come from a mistake made in a random comment by a random person on the internet on a Guardian article https://twitter.com/davidbauer/status/1317452038658281472
Check out this lovely thread of how that value has come from a mistake made in a random comment by a random person on the internet on a Guardian article https://twitter.com/davidbauer/status/1317452038658281472
Who cares about irrelevant factoids like the value of Central Park or the height of Poonam Yadav, right?
Well, Google makes mistakes like this with medical information.
Here it is picking its "facts" from a predatory fake journal https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1315931067526733825
Well, Google makes mistakes like this with medical information.
Here it is picking its "facts" from a predatory fake journal https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1315931067526733825
Sometimes, these "facts" can be about serious political issues, and give unnecessary credibility to random conspiracy theories, like these 5 US presidents who were "members of the Ku Klux Klan" https://searchengineland.com/googles-one-true-answer-problem-featured-snippets-270549
What about religious opinions getting in the way of science?
For a while, the search "What happened to the dinosaurs" was spouting nonsense from the Bible. https://www.vice.com/en/article/pga4wg/go-ahead-ask-google-what-happened-to-the-dinosaurs
For a while, the search "What happened to the dinosaurs" was spouting nonsense from the Bible. https://www.vice.com/en/article/pga4wg/go-ahead-ask-google-what-happened-to-the-dinosaurs
In short, Google Fact Box is just a bunch of cobbled together heuristics which often fail to give the correct answer.
Be careful and check the source of the information.
See this guardian article for more problems with Google and facts: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/04/google-democracy-truth-internet-search-facebook
Be careful and check the source of the information.
See this guardian article for more problems with Google and facts: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/04/google-democracy-truth-internet-search-facebook
And @_logik points out that Poonam Yadav's Height is still ten feet. They just fixed the use case that went viral, using a hack. As I said: "Cobbled together" https://twitter.com/_logik/status/1327227654559264768
Misinformation is all around us, and the misinformers are learning all the different ways in which to misuse the modern web and social media infrastructure to mislead us.
I'm teaching a course on this for for 12-16-year-olds. Details here: https://twitter.com/NGKabra/status/1327234588167479296
I'm teaching a course on this for for 12-16-year-olds. Details here: https://twitter.com/NGKabra/status/1327234588167479296