Fact Check Tool By Google

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Image from Pixabay

It’s tough being at the top. Google has been taking a lot of heat for returning what some are calling fake news results to online search queries. In addition, they have been under fire for showing paid ads next to offensive content and losing Adwords revenue.

They aren’t the only ones. Facebook has also been in hot water, and it all came to a head around the time of the 2016 elections. In an effort to combat this issue, Facebook rolled out their “educational tool” about a month ago.

Now it’s Big G’s turn. Last Friday they introduced the new fact check tool by Google, which utilizes outside sources to check the validity of the certain stories. The following post gives an overview of how it works:

Google rolls out new ‘Fact Check’ tool worldwide to combat fake news – CSMonitor.com

April 7, 2017 —On Friday, Google implemented a new tool to fight the spread of misinformation on the web worldwide. The new “Fact Check” program automatically labels dubious stories in users’ search results, and provides links to fact-checking sites like Snopes and Politifact to establish the veracity of their claims.

Google rolls out new ‘Fact Check’ tool worldwide to combat fake news – CSMonitor.com

Image from Pixabay

The main two problems with attempting to be the fake news police is: 1. The question of freedom of speech and 2. Who gets to decide what is fake

Some people are questioning whether Snopes and Politifact are considered accurate sources and have the right to decide if a news story is authentic. Snopes, a project that began in 1994 with the mission of proving or disproving urban legends, is now one of the most trusted sites for checking whether a story is true, false, or a little of both.

However, it seems that politics play into many decisions made these days.

As far as freedom of speech, part of what makes the internet so cool is that you can access differing opinions on topics and then glean information in an effort to make practical assumptions about the facts.  Every person has an distinct opinion about what the truth is, making the term “alternative facts” part of the news mainstream.

The following video provides some thought provoking information on this subject:

Let’s face it, Google has a lot of weight on their shoulders to provide accurate search results. It makes it difficult to please every group or cause, similar to how a referee of a sporting event never makes a decision that satisfies everyone. I remember not long ago that Wikipedia was considered a questionable source of content since it is collaborative endeavor by its users…AKA someone’s opinion.

Can the people that conclude a written piece of work is fake or not stay completely neutral? The next post continues with this train of thought:

Google’s fact check feature goes global and comes to Google Search | TechCrunch

Occasionally, of course, different groups may have come to different conclusions. Some of these claims can be a bit fuzzy, after all. Google says it will present those different opinions to its users. “Even though differing conclusions may be presented, we think it’s still helpful for people to understand the degree of consensus around a particular claim and have clear information on which sources agree,” the company writes in today’s announcement. “As we make fact checks more visible in Search results, we believe people will have an easier time reviewing and assessing these fact checks, and making their own informed opinions.”

Read the original post here:  Google’s fact check feature goes global and comes to Google Search | TechCrunch

Image from Wikimedia Commons

I would like to think that there are a lot of practical people in our world with enough common sense to distinguish between what is accurate or inaccurate news. Based on scientific and historical knowledge, we know that the world is round, not flat. But given enough input saying the opposite, some people give in to doubts and start to wonder.

However, the type of people that question the status quo are many times inventors that think outside the box, coming up with ideas that save lives or at least make our lives easier. It will be interesting to see how this evolves and how artificial intelligence is used in our search for the truth.

Find the original post on S&S Pro Blog

Fake News Sites on Google and Facebook

There has been a lot of talk lately about fake news sites on Google and Facebook perpetuating false stories, especially during the presidential election. Some believe that erroneous information was purposely spread to sway voters opinion. Since Google and Facebook have become the medium through which the majority of online users experience the world, they have been highly criticized over the promotion of these fake sites.

Sad but true, a percentage of people think that everything you read on the internet is true. In the U.S., the contentious election of 2016 brought out extreme emotions of a divided and frustrated country. These fraudulent news stories helped to fan the flames and the wildfire of propaganda got out of control.

So, these two major players were forced to make some changes:

Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News Sites

Google kicked off the action on Monday afternoon when the Silicon Valley search giant said it would ban websites that peddle fake news from using its

Image from Pixabay

online advertising service. Hours later, Facebook, the social network, updated the language in its Facebook Audience Network policy, which already says it will not display ads in sites that show misleading or illegal content, to include fake news sites.

“We have updated the policy to explicitly clarify that this applies to fake news,” a Facebook spokesman said in a statement. “Our team will continue to closely vet all prospective publishers and monitor existing ones to ensure compliance.”

Taken together, the decisions were a clear signal that the tech behemoths could no longer ignore the growing outcry over their power in distributing information to the American electorate.

Read the full post here:  Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News Sites

I think it is interesting that there is a Wikipedia listing of Fake News Websites. Ironically, back in the day when the internet was young and Wikipedia first started, students at the school I taught at weren’t allowed to cite information found there because of the potential for false data due to the fact that anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles.

Today it is thought to be fairly credible because most writers cite their sources and studies have shown that Wikipedia’s depth and coverage are of a high standard, although it hasn’t been immune from the recent rash of fake news promotion.

The scary thing about false news stories is that some people get so riled up that they act on them. This video shares a story that happened recently about a man that read on a bogus site that a pizzeria in Washington D.C. was the center of a child abuse ring. The man actually went to the pizza place with a shotgun to investigate:

The problem with these sensationalized stories becoming viral is that we as humans share them with our family and friends. Even if the main social platforms do their best to stop these sites from getting attention, users need to educate themselves on how to manage false information.  This article from BuzzFeed News provides a step-by-step method for reporting fake news:

This Is How You Can Stop Fake News From Spreading On Facebook – BuzzFeed News

Many people don’t realize that you can report fake news when you see it on Facebook. This helps stop it from spreading. The problem is that the option is kind of hidden. So here’s how to use it.

Image from Pixabay

1. When you see false information like this hoax, click on the “v” menu in the upper-right corner of the post.

2. That pops up a menu. Choose “Report post.”

3. Then choose “I think it shouldn’t be on Facebook.”

4. Now select “It’s a false news story.”

See the original post here:  This Is How You Can Stop Fake News From Spreading On Facebook – BuzzFeed News

The actual story on BuzzFeed provides graphics to guide you if you have trouble finding the right menu. I think this would go a long way to preventing these stories from spreading. Can someone report a story as fake that is actually true? They can try, but I am sure there is a certain criteria as to how this is handled with the site administration. You also have the option to just hide them from your timeline.

Originally posted on S&S Pro Blog

Using Artificial Intelligence with Social Media

With social media usage at an all-time high and the amount of information being shared astronomical, it’s no surprise that some of the content is bogus. Half of U.S. adults claim that they get their news via social media channels, but not everything that is shared is factual and legitimate. To weed out some of the incorrect information, social media platforms are using artificial intelligence.

This article by Venture Beat talks about using it as a spam filter:

How AI is becoming essential for social media | VentureBeat | Bots | by Eli Israel, Meshfire

The best analogy for the use of artificial intelligence in social media is to think of it like spam filtering for email. We use some of the same techniques to

Image from Pixabay

help email users find the most important messages and ignore the junk. But we would never have our anti-spam systems write our emails for us or try to tell us what they mean.

The same applies in social media: AI will help us find the most valuable, most important interactions to engage in, but humans will have to do all the actual engagement.

The final lesson to learn from the analogy with anti-spam tools is that AI for finding and prioritizing social media interactions is now an essential tool for community managers, marketers, and customer service teams.

Read the full post here:  How AI is becoming essential for social media | VentureBeat | Bots | by Eli Israel, Meshfire

If you haven’t been keeping up with the advances in artificial intelligence, it is getting closer to the original definition of AI in a 1955 proposal by Dartmouth College. (pictured below) According to the video below, the first six aspects have been somewhat mastered, but randomness and creativity is just beginning to be discovered.

This video by Cold Fusion goes into a deeper explanation of AI and where we are at today. The difference between artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning are analyzed.  I love the nonsensical script that was written using AI at 2:43:

How are the big social platforms using artificial intelligence to help make their product better?  This is a brief version of what each is doing:

Facebook:  Using it to sort through large databases helps adjust suggestions, news feed filters, figure out trending topics, and tag the appropriate friends in photos.

Google:  DeepMind is working on making AI faster, more efficient learning to save operational memory and accomplish tasks more efficiently.

LinkedIn:  Using Bright.com to help offer better job-candidate matches for both employers and job seekers.

Pinterest:  Using Visual Graph for object recognition to boost Pin and product recommendations,ad performance and relevance prediction, and to detect spam.

This statement in a post by Hootsuite sums up the need for artificial intelligence with social media:

Artificial Intelligence in Social Media: What AI Knows About You, and What You Need to Know

Image from Pixabay

Almost every major player in the social media arena has invested internal resources, or established third-party collaborations with teams focused on artificial intelligence. Don’t worry, we’re still quite far from SkyNet, but that last good product recommendation you got online may have been the work of an AI technology. To help you figure out what deep learning really does for major social networks, here’s the skinny on artificial intelligence in social media.

Read the original post here:   Artificial Intelligence in Social Media: What AI Knows About You, and What You Need to Know

Seen originally on S&S Pro Blog

The Benefits of Selling and Buying Via Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace has been revitalized and the social media giant is hoping this time it is a success. In an attempt to compete with sites such as Craigslist and Ebay, the revamped eCommerce app was rolled out on Monday, October 3rd.  It comes complete with an easy to use template to guide you through the process.

In a post by the LA Times, it explains more about the benefits of selling and buying via Facebook Marketplace:

‘Discover, buy and sell’: Facebook takes on EBay and Craigslist with its new Marketplace feature – LA Times

Facebook Inc., looking to take a chunk of business from EBay Inc. and Craigslist, unveiled a feature Monday that lets users buy and sell products among themselves.

The feature, called Marketplace, is “a convenient destination to discover, buy and sell items with people in your community,” Mary Ku, Facebook’s director of product management, said in a Facebook post.

EBay and Craigslist are formidable targets, with each proving to be resilient and dominant players in the world of online commerce despite rapid changes in technology and competition from various rivals over the years.

But Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook, with 1.7 billion monthly active users, poses a substantial threat to take some of their market share.

Facebook said its Marketplace will roll out in the next few days to users over 18 in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. It will be available on the Facebook app for both the iPhone and Android smartphones.

Read the rest of the story here:  ‘Discover, buy and sell’: Facebook takes on EBay and Craigslist with its new Marketplace feature – LA Times

In this video, Bloomberg West reports on the new app allowing you to shop while you catch up with your family and friends on Facebook:

With the premiere of a new product, there are usually some kinks to work out. For Facebook’s Marketplace, the glitches that appeared the day after the launch were not what they had expected. Some of the items that slipped through their filters caused some embarrassment, but Facebook was on top of the situation:

Facebook apologizes for all the weird things that showed up on Marketplace – Oct. 4, 2016

Within hours of Facebook launching Marketplace, the Craigslist-esque forum had already been overrun by users selling a mix of bizarre and illegal items.

In Pittsburgh, a can of beer was listed for $25. In London, someone was trying to “sell” his pregnant girlfriend for $400. And in New York, someone listed “About 6 Oz. Water (Bottle Not Included)” for $56.

On Tuesday, Facebook (FB, Tech30) blamed a “technical issue” for all the strange posts, but didn’t elaborate on what the issue was other than to say it prevented the review system from screening posts that violated its Commerce Policies.

Facebook’s guidelines prohibit a dozen categories of products from being sold on its platform, including drugs, animals, “adult items or services,” alcohol and weapons. Although Marketplace is a new feature, people have always been able to buy and sell things on Facebook. Stopping things like private gun sales has been a problem before.

Original post here:  Facebook apologizes for all the weird things that showed up on Marketplace – Oct. 4, 2016

With the success of online shopping sites, it makes sense that other companies would attempt to replicate or reinvent their own platform. Since the Marketplace does not create any actual revenue for Facebook, it remains to be seen as to whether it will become the go-to place for buying and selling. After a year of experimenting with the platform and all of the initial bugs are worked out, I think it will be a great way to stay connected and promote your goods.

Originally posted on S&S Pro Blog

The Latest Social Media Updates

When it comes to social media, there are constant changes in algorithms, updates to the interface, as well as new sites popping up every day. The big players are continuously tweaking their platform to make it more user friendly, which basically means more controlling, and they are all trying to monetize their site. That has been an elusive task for many social media sites, but you can’t blame them for trying.

This article from Social Media Today by Andrew Hutchinson provides the most recent social media updates with the headliner sites:

5 New Social Platform Features That You Need to Know About | Social Media Today

The social media landscape is constantly changing, everyday there are new options and tools being announced and introduced, some major and some less significant. And in that, there are also some of those smaller, minor updates or tests that are important to specific groups but can go under the radar because they’re not widely announced.

As part of our ongoing effort to provide our readers with the best coverage of the latest social media news and insights, we feel it’s important to cover all of these, but sometimes they’re not worthy of a their own individual post. So to keep you up to date on these smaller changes and features, here’s a rundown of five upcoming or “in test mode” features that are currently being trialed by some of the major platforms – starting with Facebook, which has several interesting new options in the works.

1. Hiding Mature Content

Policing offensive material on social is always a challenge, and one that’s been made even more difficult with the advent of live-streaming – when the content is coming through in real-time, how can you censor it? For their part, Facebook has a whole team of people who scan through potentially offensive material on the platform and flag or remove as necessary – but even with such processes in place, The Social Network still receives many complaints from users about confronting material everyday coming up in their feeds.

As part of a new effort to combat the problem, Facebook is trialing a new ‘Mature Content’ filter option for users.

Image from Facebook

As shown in the image sequence, selected users are being shown the first message in their News Feed, giving them the option to remove mature content from their feed. If you do opt to remove mature posts, you’re then able to either filter them out completely, or to appear with a warning cover which gives you the option on whether you view the flagged material or not. Facebook told Business Insider that machine learning is being used to determine if something in a post violates the platform’s Community Standards, leading to it being potentially censored.

It’s an interesting option, giving users more control over what they see, and potentially could have some impact on brand content, depending on the products/services you offer.

2. Donations During Live-Stream

Facebook’s also reportedly looking to trial a new system which would enable people to donate money during a Live stream, with those donations – and donators – displayed during the broadcast.

The discovery is based on currently dormant back-end settings within Facebook Live, discovered by Moshe Isaacian (and shared by The Next Web’s Matt Navarra) earlier this week.

Facebook’s been investigating ‘tip jar’ type options for a while – back in April The Verge got access to a Facebook survey which had been sent out to verified users posing a range of questions around how they use Facebook, including whether they might find a tip jar option useful. If introduced, it could give Live broadcasters a new way to monetize their streams, and a new incentive to provide more value to their viewers, to whom they could directly appeal for funding to keep doing what they do. And worth noting, both YouNow and Twitch, which Facebook is now competing with in the live-streaming space, have donation options which, in YouNow’s case, enable a sort of digital busking option for artists.

That’s very likely the type of activity Facebook’s looking to encourage, giving broadcasters more reason to create content on the platform.

There’s no word as yet as to when, or even if, the tip jar system will ever be activated, but given it’s already built into the code, it’s likely we’ll see the tool announced some time soon.

3. Facebook Crossposting

Another recent Facebook Page addition is a ‘Crossposting’ tool, enabling admins to submit one video post that can be shared across multiple Pages to which they’re connected.

Crossposting has been available within Business Manager since April, but the option has now also been added to the general Facebook Page options – Facebook’s main use case for crossposting video is explained like this:

“A media company might want to post a video on their main Page, their international Page, and one of their topical Pages. Then they might also want to repost that same video a few weeks later.”

So if you manage multiple Pages and are looking to more easily share your video content across them, there’s now a simplified tool to do so.

Read the rest of the updates here:  5 New Social Platform Features That You Need to Know About | Social Media Today

So, the fact that Facebook updates are highlighted in the first three sections is no surprise. They are one of the few social media platforms that are profitable.  Plus they seem to find a way to regularly be in the news. Not many of the social sites can boast about their bottom line, including Twitter.

This Statistica infographic shows how Twitter rates against Facebook after ten years of existence. Even with its celebrity status, Twitter is still struggling to be in the black. There are numerous reasons, but time will tell whether Twitter can please their stockholders.

You will find more statistics at Statista

Facebook plays a big part in many businesses social media campaigns. There are numerous other platforms that are used to promote brand and products or services. We use Facebook, but we also use YouTube regularly as a promotional tool.

Here is another article that highlights social media updates. In this case, I chose to display the “other” platform updates, although this article by Debbie Miller of Search Engine Journal also started with Facebook news:

10 Social Media Updates from April 2016 | SEJ

Google +

Google has loosened its restrictions on who can leave reviews. Once requiring a Google+ account, now reviews can be left whether signed in to a Google+ account or not.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn released an app with the potential to bring in more young people to its social network. The new app, appropriately titled “LinkedIn Students”, is made specifically for helping college students in their efforts to find jobs after graduation.

Reddit

Reddit finally has its own self-produced mobile app for the iOS and Android platforms. Its presenting a completely different user experience on its mobile app than what people are accustomed to on desktop.

Twitter

Twitter is set to be the destination for sports fans on Thursday nights; the signing of a partnership with the NFL gives the social network exclusive streaming rights of NFL Thursday Night Football.

YouTube

Google is rolling out a new ad format for YouTube which will be short and unskippable. Google is calling me these ad units “Bumper” ads and they will appear just before videos that you watch on your phone or tablet.

See the other updates here:  10 Social Media Updates from April 2016 | SEJ

I know many people see social media as a way to stay connected with family and friends. Even though I enjoy it, it is also part of my job and my daily routine. In this day and age, a business can’t ignore the number of eyeballs that view the different platforms every day and use that to their advantage.

 Originally seen on S&S Pro Blog