How to Quickly Vet Google Search Results for Credibility and Security

Google has added a helpful “About this result” menu for its search results. The new menu includes contextual information that you can use to check if you’re getting expert opinions from a trusted source, whether a job listing is recent, or confirming that the site you’re about to click on is secure.

U.S. users can access Google Search’s new “About this result” menu on desktop and mobile right now. It works on all browsers, Android’s built-in Google search, and on the Google iOS app. However, the information isn’t immediately viewable — you have to click the three-stacked dots icon next to a website’s name to open the “About this result” information card.

Google says most — but not all — search results will now have the “About this results” card. For those that do, you’ll see a brief description of the website pulled from Wikipedia. If there’s no Wikipedia entry for the page, the description is pulled from one of Google’s services, though it won’t be as detailed. At the very least, you’ll see the first time Google indexed the page. Google also cites all sources for any information shown in the card.

Checking a website’s “About this result” card can also keep you safer online. The card will say “Your connection to this site is secure” if it is using HTTPS, which is important for keeping your personal data secure while browsing. Being able to pre-check for a secure connection is handy no matter what you’re searching for, but especially if you look into the danger zone beyond the first page or two of results.

Finally, quick links at the bottom of the card can shuffle you off to your Google account’s privacy settings and information on how Google’s web crawler works. Some websites will also have a link to quickly look up similar results, or a link to the most recently cached version of the page if you’ve visited it before.

Note that the “About this result” feature is still in beta, so some information may be incomplete, and the feature may not always work correctly. There’s a link to “Send feedback on this info” to Google if you find bugs or inaccuracies.