The days of users falling for online scams because of the results they get when searching on Google could soon be over. The search engine is already testing a method that will prevent these types of problems from occurring again. It is only in testing mode for now, but it is a solution that looks very good.
Finally, Google is starting to make its move. In recent times, search results have begun to be invaded, in some specific cases, by websites that imitated real ones and were, in fact, scams. Now they have a solution that, if it takes hold and works, could become established as the standard.
Verification in trust results
We discovered this feature through The Verge, where one of its members, Jay Peters, came across it almost by accident. He says that when he switched from one Google account to another, it stopped showing up. Because of this, it could be understood that Google is doing very limited tests as part of the beginning of this process to see if the idea works or not.
This involves the addition of a check mark to search results, as you can see in the image above this paragraph. The check mark resembles an X and appears next to the company name in blue. The theory is that it would be a mark that Google itself would provide to large businesses so that users would know that they are trustworthy.
At the moment in large entities
The tests carried out by The Verge have led them to see that the brand has appeared next to the names of Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Epic Games and HP. It has been temporary, although more than enough for the website to be able to capture it and for everyone to discover the possible plan that Google could have to avoid incidents.
After discovering this, The Verge spoke to Google and confirmed that it is indeed true that they are conducting a small experiment to test it. When you hover over the verification icon, an informative text appears where Google explains that the brand appears because the signals used by the search engine suggest that it is the real business that the website claims to be. However, they mention that Google cannot guarantee the trustworthiness of the business or its products, thus removing some responsibility even if they try to help with the brand.
This type of innovation, if implemented globally for all users, could avoid the problems that have been recorded in recent months. For example, several scams have been seen related to streaming platforms, such as Disney+. What happened was that there were domains indexed in Google that were very similar to the originals and that tried to scam users. The search engine would like to avoid these incidents so that the tool can continue to be used in a completely safe way.
Google's plans in this regard have not yet been revealed, so we'll have to wait and see. The company often tests out different features and does experiments like this in order to try out new features that it may or may not implement. Because of this, we shouldn't wait for it to be available at an early date. It will most likely take some time and it may even be activated in different languages or parts of the world progressively. However, as we said, it's good to see that they have a solution in hand.
