Google targets ‘fake news,’ offensive search suggestions

A sign outside Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO: Google has sprinkled some new ingredients into its search engine in an effort to prevent bogus information and offensive suggestions from souring its results.
The changes announced Tuesday reflects Google’s confidence in a new screening system designed to reduce the chances that its influential search engine will highlight untrue stories about people and events, a phenomenon commonly referred to as “fake news.”
Although only a small fraction of Google’s search results were being polluted with falsehoods, it was still happening frequently enough to threaten the integrity of a search engine that processes billions of requests a day, largely because it is widely regarded as the Internet’s most authoritative source of information.
Google also has reprogrammed a popular feature to omit derogatory suggestions from its automated recommendations of search requests.