At this point, most college students know that fake news is insidious and a real threat to their credibility as students and researchers. However, because many people do not realize they have access to academic databases (both in Indiana and Ohio) through their state library system, most people turn to Google to look up and verify information. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work as well as one would hope.

Google includes lots of services and search results, like Images, Books and Maps. They’re fast, east to access and completely free, which is what makes them so ubiquitous. In fact, 64% of the world’s Internet searches are done on Google. Most users are also aware of Google Scholar, which on the surface seems like the bigger, smarter older brother of a basic Google search. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and Google Scholar in fact falls prey to issues endemic with Google itself.

Consider trying to validate a ridiculous claim – like the earth was once ruled by powerful intergalactic gods called the Annunaki, who enslaved people to dig gold, also known as the Ancient Aliens theory of human development. This claim, which refuses to die, was first brought forth by author Zecharia Sitchin, a journalist by trade with no background or history in Mesopotamian studies, archeology, anthropology, linguistics or any other field that would lend him credibility in discussing Sumerian culture. He wrote 13 books on the subject of the Annunaki, which cemented into popular culture the notion of meddling interstellar gods. Other authors, such as Erich von Daniken, have also forwarded similar claims, but none have nearly the cachet of Sitchin.

Unfortunately, Sitchin is about as accurate and truthful as this. Numerous Sumerian and Akkadian texts demonstrate the Annunaki were worshipped as part of the culture from which they sprung, often seen as gods of judgment or underworld gods. The Annunaki are mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the most famous works of ancient world literature, as part of a flood scene and an underworld scene. They were not aliens, nor did they enslave or genetically modify any members of the human evolutionary line.

I thought that the claim of ancient aliens was so ridiculous that it would be easy to debunk. I selected an article to examine, which would be the focus of my attention. I also decided to use Google and Google Scholar exclusively to disprove the ancient aliens myth, to clearly demonstrate the steps I use to fact-check articles and show how Google can be used to disprove claims. This article’s claims should have been so obviously wrong, so odd, so weird, that I should have had no trouble at all. Right?

Wrong.

Google itself proved problematic. I had initially read the fake news article that I was debunking on my own computer and was logged into my Google account. When I went to Google Scholar to look for articles debunking the false claim, the overwhelming majority of my results were, in fact, articles from popular websites that did not use good quality sources and reiterated the same claims. Almost none of my results, even after four pages of hits, came from scholarly sources, peer reviewed journals or good-quality news sources.

When I went to a computer where I had never logged in with Google before, my results on Google Scholar were completely different. While they were not entirely accurate, the results tended to be closer to what I would expect from a “scholarly” information source:

When I was logged into a computer with my Google account active, Google tracked my initial click on an “alternative news” site and used that as the basis for all future research on the subject – which meant I received almost entirely bogus information, even in Google Scholar. Without the Google login, I wound up with completely different results.

As a librarian, I am greatly disturbed by this. Google used my clicks in ways I did not expect, to give me information that was incorrect even as I was trying to find accurate, scholarly, informed websites and articles. I anticipated that Google searches were value neutral and based on some level of accuracy, but again, my anticipations were not met. The problem with this is that Google is everywhere in our collective digital landscape, in our emails and videos and online documents. It’s the source everyone uses first when performing any kind of research. It constantly collects information from us, tailoring our searches and providing us what it thinks we want, rather than what we actually seek, and provides these results without concern for factual accuracy.

So what’s the solution? For starters, logging out of Google before searching can help. But if you are using Google Docs to collaborate on a project with coworkers, uploading a YouTube video while researching or checking email periodically, logging out is not viable. Thankfully, other services can help. Startpage.com works similar to Google, and even uses Google’s backbone – except they strip your personal information from the searches you perform, which may make for more accurate searches. Other search engines, like DuckDuckGo, do not store private information. Both of these returned generally more accurate information than Google when I searched for “Annunaki gods”. In addition, you should be aware that IU East subscribes to a number of academic databases. These databases contain millions of articles on a variety of topics, and most of the information sources indexed in these databases were chosen for their accuracy and reliability.

It is extremely important to know how to find accurate information, not only for classroom and research projects, but for understanding the world around us. Have a question on search engines, research, information literacy or quality information sources? Ask us! iueref@iue.edu.