3 new ways to check images and sources online

From The Google Blog:

Google Search has built-in tools to help you find high-quality information and make sense of what you’re seeing online. Today, we’re announcing three new ways you can get more context about the images and sources you’re finding.

About this image is now available

Earlier this year, we announced a new feature called About this image, and today, this feature is rolling out to English language users globally in Google Search. About this image gives people an easy way to check the credibility and context of images they see online. Here’s what you can discover with this tool:

  • An image’s history: You’ll be able 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 can be helpful if an image is being taken out of context and shared in relation to a current event, but it’s actually much older.
  • How other sites use and describe the image: You can see how an image is used on other pages, and what other sources, like news and fact checking sites, have to say about it. This information can be helpful to assess the claims being made about an image, and to see evidence and perspectives from other sources.
  • An image’s metadata: You’ll 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. All Google AI-generated images will have this markup in the original file.

. . . .

Fact Check Explorer adds image searching

Fact Check Explorer gives journalists and fact checkers a deeper way to learn about an image or topic. Powered by claim review mark up (which helps Google detect and display a fact check), Fact Check Explorer lets users find fact checks which have been investigated by independent organizations from around the world.

This summer, we released a global beta version which lets you upload or copy the URL of any image into the Fact Check Explorer and see if it has been featured anywhere in an existing fact check. This version also provides an overview of the different contexts associated with the image and their evolution over time. Since we released this version, over 70% of our beta users reported the new image features helped reduce their investigation time into an image, helping them bring image fact checks online quicker.

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Search Generative Experience powers more information about sources

One of the best ways to evaluate information online is to learn more about the source. Say you stumble upon some cool new hiking boots, but they’re from a small merchant you’re not familiar with. You might want to do research on the seller – but in some cases, it can be hard to find information about lesser-known sites. Now, we’re starting to experiment with how generative AI can do some of that digging for you, to help you search with confidence.

For people who are opted-into Search Generative Experience (SGE) through Search Labs, you’ll now be able to see AI-generated descriptions of some sources, supported by information on high-quality sites that talk about that website. We’ll showcase links to these sites in the AI-generated description of the source.

These AI-generated descriptions of the source will show up in the “more about this page” section of About this result for some sources where there isn’t an existing overview from Wikipedia or the Google Knowledge Graph. At this stage, we’re starting small in exploring how this technology can be useful to support and supplement our existing information literacy efforts.

Having easily accessible tools to help people verify what they see online has never been more important. Seven in ten (70%) respondents to a 2023 study led by the Poynter Institute’s digital media initiative MediaWise reported not being totally or very confident in their ability to tell when online images are authentic and reliable.

Link to the rest at The Google Blog

Google sunsets Domains business and shovels it off to Squarespace

From The Verge:

Google Domains has been a quick and easy place to buy a dot com (or dot net, or dot studio, even) for your cottage bakery — but the company is now giving up on the registrar business and selling the assets to Squarespace. The deal includes handing off 10 million domains owned by Google customers to the popular website builder.

In a press statement, Google’s VP and GM of merchant shopping, Matt Madrigal, says the sale is an effort to “sharpen our focus” and that the company plans on “supporting a smooth transition” for its customers being handed off to Squarespace. Madrigal then assures customers that Squarespace, which already has its own domain management plus web building tools, would be the perfect home for customers’ websites. Google Domains first became available as a beta in 2014 and finally came out of beta just last year.

The “definitive agreement” between Google and Squarespace includes assurances that customers will get the same renewal prices available to them for the next 12 months. Plus, Squarespace agrees to provide “incentives” for customers to build their website with the company’s platform.

For some users, especially those who only hold their domain at Google for convenience’s sake (and point it to their hosted website elsewhere), Squarespace may not be adding any value. And as it stands: Squarespace’s domain purchasing process, by design, assumes you’re also building a website from scratch on the company’s platform.

Additionally, customers planning to subscribe to Google’s Workspace enterprise platform and who want to easily buy a domain within that process, too, will now be registering it through Squarespace by default. But if the customer would like to buy the domain elsewhere, they can do that and then link it back to Workspace later.

The deal makes Squarespace the exclusive domain provider for Workspace customers buying domains directly through Google, at least for the next three years. For those who already subscribe to Workspace, and have purchased domains through Google, Squarespace will also be taking over those customers’ domain billing and support services.

. . . .

Google Domains is yet another service the company is sending to the graveyard, at least internally. The company recently shut down Currents, which was a Google Plus offshoot for enterprise. And Google’s cloud gaming platform, Stadia, was also a recent loss.

Link to the rest at The Verge

4 Things Google Domains Customers Need to Know About the Sale to Squarespace

From Tech Republic:

You’ll have a different domain registration vendor

Former Google Domains customers will become Squarespace customers; these customers will need to sign in to Squarespace to modify, add or otherwise manage registered domain name system records. All future domain name renewals will be done through Squarespace.

Domain registration pricing will likely change in the long-run

One significant shift in the longer-run will be the possibility of domain name registration price changes. In the initial announcement, Squarespace asserted it would honor renewal pricing for at least a year, which is helpful because Google Domains tended to offer an excellent value for the price.

Expect fewer partnerships and more promotions

Google Domains made it easy to add and configure Google properties such as Google Workspace, Sites, Blogger or Firebase and also offered streamlined setup with partners that included Squarespace, Shopify, Bluehost, Wix and Weebly. Once Google Domains’ domain registrations are transferred to Squarespace, few of these partner promotions will likely remain; however, per the announcements, streamlined setup of Google Workspace from Squarespace domains will continue. Customers of Squarespace domains might anticipate more promotion of Squarespace website creation tools.

You may want to explore alternatives

The prudent action might be to do nothing: Wait for the transfer, monitor the situation and evaluate any future price changes when they occur. From what is known now, if Google Domains customers do nothing, then all registrations will transfer to Squarespace and pricing will remain stable for a year.

. . . .

[S]ome Google Domains customers may prefer to go ahead and switch to a different registrar proactively. You would need to select an appropriate registrar and then initiate the domain registration transfer process.

For example, a strong candidate might be a domain name registrar that offers Whois privacy, reasonable pricing, published names/profiles of key leadership and organizational experience as a Google Workspace reseller. Published profiles indicate a certain level of willingness from people to accept responsibility for their business actions, while experience with Workspace reselling increases the chance that support teams are familiar with Google’s systems. To that, you might also prefer an easy-to-configure DNSSEC option, as mentioned above. Namecheap.com meets all of these criteria and is worth a look for alternatives.

Link to the rest at Tech Republic

PG suspects he’s not the only person who bought some domains through Google figuring that he wouldn’t have to go through the hassle he had when he had to transfer domains from other internet service providers/domain parking places that went out of business or looked like they might have become a little shady or short on cash. It’s been so long that PG can’t remember the details of the domain transfer hassles, just that he experienced more than a few.

PG has already come across promotions from other website hosting providers targeted at those who have purchased domains through Google.