Google performs 1,000 tests daily to ensure quality in Search

Since 2017, the company has done more than one million quality tests to deliver high-quality information to billions of Search users, informed Pandu Nayak, Google Fellow and Vice President, Search.

"With new things happening around the world every day, the information landscape can change quickly. To understand how our systems are performing when news breaks, we've developed an Intelligence Desk, which actively monitors and identifies potential information threats," Nayak said in a blog post on Friday.

The Intelligence Desk is a global team of analysts monitoring news events 24/7, spanning natural disasters and crises, breaking news moments and the latest developments in ongoing topics like Covid-19.

"Over the past few years, we've improved our systems to automatically recognise breaking news around crisis moments like natural disasters and ensure we're returning the most authoritative information available," Nayak said.

"We've improved our detection time from up to 40 minutes just a few years ago, to now within just a few minutes of news breaking".

To date, people have seen fact checks on Search and News more than four billion times, which is more than all of 2019 combined.

Google recently donated an additional $6.5 million to help fact-checking organisations and nonprofits focus on misinformation about the pandemic.

The funding was given as part of Google News Initiative (GNI) which is also providing an online resource hub, dedicated training and crisis simulations for reporters covering Covid-19 all over the globe.