Use this tool to help you decide if the news you're reading is the real deal

By Lulu Chang Published December 5, 2016

Fake news may be ubiquitous, but it can be pretty inconspicuous, too. But now, in an attempt to make fake news a bit more noticeable, a team from TechCrunch Disrupt London has created an algorithm that tells you when that “news” you’re ready is not as newsy as you may think.

Meet Notim.press/ed — or if you’re reading between the lines (or just through the punctuation), “Not Impressed.” It’s a tool that lets you type in a URL and determine just how trustworthy your source is. But wait, you say, isn’t that relatively subjective? Not exactly.

Recommended Videos

One of the key metrics upon which Notim.press/ed depends is a website’s Alexa score, which is based on “the browsing behavior of people in [Alexa’s] global data panel, which is a sample of all internet users.” In addition to the site’s Alexa top websites ranking, the tool also provides you with the sentiment analysis, bounce rate, domain location, and headline clickbait detection machine learning score for your chosen URL. Taken together, these elements can paint a pretty telling picture of just how trustworthy that article of yours may be.

For example, if your URL comes back with a low Alexa rank, not-so-nice sentiment analysis, a high bounce rate, and a clickbait alert, chances are, that’s not “news” you’re reading. Just check out the example TechCrunch posted below.

screen-shot-2016-12-04-at-4-32-26-am — Image used with permission by copyright holder

And to make it even easier to use, the Notim.press/ed team is also in the process of developing a Chrome plugin that lets you see a trustworthiness score within your Google search results. That means you won’t even have to waste your time reading an article to determine whether or not it’s trash.

So if you’re looking for a way to cut down on the non-news in your life, this may just be the tool you’ve been waiting for. Because, hey, sometimes we all need a little help spotting the lies.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

Computing

How to change margins in Google Docs

Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content -- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Computing

What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app

A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Computing

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.