You have sat in front of a store eagerly awaiting the arrival of a brand-new issue of a magazine you enjoy reading. As the store representative runs his or her hands briskly through the pockets of the sporty blazer/shirt combination you have selected, you notice something is amiss. The article you have just been reading is actually the second, third or even fourth installment in a long-running series. You throw the magazine down in frustration and storm out of the store. You have been cheated!
This is a scenario played out by millions of consumers worldwide every day. From the moment we place an order for an e-book or a digital magazine subscription, we begin to wonder if the copy we are about to receive is actually unique. Is this a one-of-a-kind magazine I have just been given the joy of discovering? Can I trust that the journalist I am about to read will pen a story that will bring me unique insights into this topic I love so much?
The short answer is no. While the copy you receive may be unique and even valuable to you as an educated reader, it is almost certainly not unique. In most cases, the text you are about to read is simply one of many variations of a pattern which exists in dozens or even hundreds of other places online. These are the magazines, newspapers and blogs which are routinely scanned by automated tools designed to find duplicates or near-duplicates of material already out there, so they can be conveniently found and cited by other scholars, researchers or students.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
While it is easy enough to point out the downsides of getting scammed, it is more instructive to consider the benefits which arise from a well-executed copy-detection scheme. For example, imagine you are searching for information about the life of William Shakespeare. You come across a blog post which cites the following sentence, “According to some scholars, Shakespeare’s mother was named Bess and he was christened William, after his father.”
In a moment of excitement, you click on the link and begin reading an interesting and well-written piece about Shakespeare’s life. A few minutes later, you find yourself wondering if this is the only place this information can be found. After all, you are looking for something specifically about Shakespeare, and this blog post does not even begin to cover the topic. To extend your search and double-check, you decide to visit the article’s source: the Shakespeare Encyclopedia. Using the search function built into the site, you enter all the keywords you can think of related to the topic, including “Shakespeare’s”, “mother”, “Bess” and “christened”. To your surprise, the first three words you enter turn up no results at all! The fourth word, “christened”, proves to be the keyword you were looking for, and you quickly find yourself clicking through to the page you were seeking, with the article still fresh in your mind.
In this way, using search engines to your advantage can yield unexpected results. By entering just a few words into the search bar, you may find something which was previously overlooked. Even if this is the case, you should not feel bad in the slightest. Before you even begin to worry about being scammed, consider how much frustration you would have felt had you not executed this simple search successfully.
Why Is This A Problem?
Imagine for a moment that you are searching for information about the life of Ludwig van Beethoven. You come across an article on the internet about the great Beethoven and, to your delight, find that several of his well-known compositions are discussed and played. As a true Beethoven enthusiast, you feel immensely grateful for this brief summary of his life and work. To verify the legitimacy of this “one-of-a-kind” article, you decide to visit the following websites where the information can be found in its entirety: Britannica, Wikipedia and Beethoven Lives On The Internet.
In each case, you are presented with an article discussing Beethoven’s life and work. To your dismay, the first two websites which you visit simply re-purpose material from other publications, namely:
- The Britannica on-line encyclopedia
- The Wikipedia encyclopaedia
- Beethoven Lives On The Internet
Both The Britannica and Wikipedia are well-known for their “open content” policies. This means that all the content which appears on their respective websites is freely available to the entire world. Anyone can access and contribute to the information contained within these websites. In many cases, this will mean that identical or near-identical pieces of content will appear on multiple websites. When this happens, the chances of being scammed increase exponentially.
For example, if you are searching for more information about Ludwig van Beethoven and come across an article on Wikipedia entitled “Beethoven’s Biography”, you may be tempted to click on the link, without giving it a second thought. After all, it’s free, it’s easy and it’s right in front of you. But in this case, it is not uniquely identifying information about Beethoven. What you are reading is identical to an article which previously appeared on the Britannica website, and which was likely copied and pasted from the Wikipedia article.
In the end, it is always preferable to double-check the source of any article you come across online. Even if it is a legitimate and unique piece of information, you should still do your best to verify its veracity. Remember, the internet is a vast wilderness and, even when you do find legitimate and unique content, there is always a chance that it could be a prank or a hoax. These are the risks we must take if we want to remain informed.
The Solution
Since we cannot completely trust search engines to give us the results we want, it is essential that we verify the source of any piece of information we find online. To do this, simply look for the name of the publication or author which the information was pulled from. In most cases, you will find this clearly indicated in the piece of content somewhere. For example, let’s say you are reading an article about Ludwig van Beethoven and decide you believe it is genuine. When you come across this author’s name: “David Dubal”, you will know that you can trust the information because “David Dubal” was indeed the person who wrote the article you are reading.
In this way, by taking the time to verify the source of the information we find online, we can better defend against those who would do us harm. As I have already established, the chances of being scammed are greatly increased when searching for information online. To reduce these chances, we must take the time to verify the identity of the person or organization which we are dealing with. In many cases, this can simply mean taking the time to find the publication or website from which the information was pulled and double-checking the credentials of the person(s) or organization(s) in question.
Getting The Best Out Of The Information You Find
Since we cannot always rely on search engines to give us the information we want, it is essential that we familiarize ourselves with the tools which are available to us, in order to get the best possible results from the content we find. A few tips which may be useful in this regard are:
- Search For The Best Available Version
- Read The Full Text Of The Article
- Look For Creative Commons License
- Check The Original Website For More Information
- Contact The Author If You Find Multiple Versions Of The Same Article
- Verify The Source Of New Information
- Join Online Communities For In-depth Research
As you may have guessed, I am a strong proponent of doing your due diligence before clicking on any link which takes you to a website you have not previously visited. Even if you find a link which appears to be genuine, there is always the chance that it may be a scam. Since it is not always possible to determine the legitimacy of a website with absolute certainty, we must be extremely careful whenever we visit a new website which we have not previously investigated. Remember, when you find an article which appears to be extremely valuable and unique, there is always the danger that it could be a hoax or a scam, so you should proceed with extreme caution.