Librarian Exposes Google Shortcomings, Reporter Red-faced

Glenn Peterson writes “An article in Tuesday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune exposes the folly of relying on Google results for authoritative information. Univ. of Minn. super-librarian Dennis Lien (a legend on Stumpers-L) spotted a misattributed quote in a recent article about the new SAT. The Strib reporter admits he used Google to fact-check the author of the quote and accepted the results even though no sources were cited on the websites he used.”

May 11, 2005 by Uncategorized 4

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4 Responses

  1. BrianS says:
    May 11, 2005 at 10:37 pm

    This is NOT Google’s shortcoming
    It is the shortcoming of whoever created the web site with the incorrect quote in the first place. Google, in fact, did a GREAT job in harvesting, indexing, and making the site available to the reporter.

    Reply
  2. Cyberpunk Librarian says:
    May 11, 2005 at 10:51 pm

    Re:This is NOT Google’s shortcoming

    It is the shortcoming of whoever created the web site with the incorrect quote in the first place.

    While the site owner is at fault for the wrong information, I think more blame lies with the reporter than anyone else. I agree that Google did not screw up anything here. They spidered the website and returned the results just like they do with everything else in their search. It’s not up to them to fact check.

    That’s the reporter’s job. I have a good friend who’s a journalist and he fact checks all the time. While he might use Google to get to a site needed to check, he takes steps to make sure the site’s reputable. As for quotes, I’d Google for a quotations page (there’s a couple really good ones out there) where they specialize in quotations. At least that would be somewhat authoritative.

    Reply
  3. opaqueentity says:
    May 12, 2005 at 4:50 pm

    Re:This is NOT Google’s shortcoming
    It is totally the reporters fault, they deliberately went looking for Twain quotations rather than searching for the text itself which is what I would have done to start with.

    Reply
  4. GrumpyOldMan says:
    May 13, 2005 at 12:52 am

    Re:This is NOT Google’s shortcoming
    If you already have an answer in mind, and you find anything that confirms it, you stop looking. Confirmation bias.

    However, I’m not surprised reporters don’t check facts anymore. As long as it sounds authoritative. Balance is the new Facts.

    Reply

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