Google offers a multitude of different services, so it's understandable that some of them fall into a state of neglect from time to time. But when the company's flagship product needs attention, it gets some right away. In December last year, redesigned knowledge panels revamped the appearance of Google Search and made results more useful. Now, Google is taking things a step further, introducing a handful of ways to verify the authenticity of results for your query.

Just ahead of International Fact Checking Day observed on April 2, Google announced five new ways in which fact checking should become easier in Search results.

First, a feature called “About this result” is making its way from a limited beta to a stable release everywhere Search is available, and across all platforms. Originally introduced in 2021, this feature helps acquaint yourself with a new source of information, like a website you hadn't visited before. You can access this feature by hitting the three-dot menu beside any search result. The panel shows a brief description of the website accompanied by quick links to more information, your privacy settings, and how Search works.

Google also plans to make the “About this page” section easier to access. Anyone googling a URL for a website should directly see information from the About this page section atop their Search results. It will contain the website’s description of itself, reviews of the site from others, and recent mentions of it. Google says this change is rolling out worldwide, but we aren’t seeing it yet.

The company is also expanding the About this result section with details about the author. Called “About this author,” the feature will give you an insight into the writer’s background and areas of experience. This small addition will make Search better for people who want to vet the source of the information they're reading. Google is rolling it out for English language results worldwide.

A common complaint with personalized Search results is the lack of viewpoints different from yours. To address this, Google is launching a new feature called Perspectives — a carousel positioned underneath the Top Stories section. It will contain content from reputable sources, all showcasing a different perspective on the topic you searched for. Also, each Perspective card will have an About this author section in the US. This feature will debut in the US on desktop and mobile sometime soon, but Google doesn’t specify when.

It may seem obvious, but people often research emerging topics as new content constantly pours in, like news about a natural disaster. On the opposite end of the spectrum, some searches also seek rather obscure information, and in both situations, gaps in information could be created. Besides its content advisories for low-confidence results, Google is now adding such advisories for rapidly evolving topics. These advisories are also rolling out in a bunch of previously unsupported languages.

Whether you trust a Big Tech company to check facts for you is a matter of preference, but for most users, these changes to Search help the perceived credibility of the displayed results. For what it’s worth, Google is partnering with a division of the American Library Association and MediaWise to run volunteer programs with librarians and middle-schoolers respectively and curb the spread of misinformation.