The Factual - News Evaluator
Get smarter about the news you read
Total ratings
4.85
(Rating count:
34)Review summary
These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews.
Chrome Web Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate,
spammy, or outdated. Pros
- Helps assess news quality and bias
- Provides other viewpoints on same topic
- Minimalistic and unobtrusive design
- Offers feedback on news reading habits
- Increases awareness about the source of the content
Cons
- Frequently results in no rating for certain news sources
- Perceived to have bias against conservative websites
- Algorithm miscalculations regarding references
- Overrates certain news sources such as Al Jazeera
Most mentioned
- User-friendly
- Balances biases
- News quality assessment
- Potential for improvement
- Filter for reliable news
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User reviews
Recent rating average:
4.50
All time rating average:
4.85
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| Date | Author | Rating | Lang | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-10-11 |  | | HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: This really is a critically needed resource in the world today. So many people choose whether a media source is trustworthy based on whether it "resonates" with them - which is a nice way of saying that they're only interested in media that reflects their own biases and prejudices. Some other sites rate media according to perceived bias, but The Factual is significantly more concerned about its accuracy, willingness to tell the whole story, and whether it is trying to create hatred against others through emotive, negative writing. I love this Chrome app which automatically assesses news articles and rates them on numerous criteria. P.S. I'm not involved in any way with The Factual, but as someone very involved in conflict resolution (eg see www.youtube.com/ToTranformConflict ) I do greatly appreciate the work it is doing. | |
| 2020-09-20 |  | | Most news sources bring up no rating. I installed and tried clicking on various news article on the Google News page. Many such as CNN and USA Today showed no rating. I do not find any value from this extension. | |
| 2019-11-27 |  | | With the amount of reading I do and news I consume, this extension is the best. Hands down, Factual is a simple addition to guide me and others to higher quality pieces. Good luck to the team. | |
| 2019-05-13 |  | | Much better than what Newsguard has done, this evaluates the article not the news company. Albeit the way it rates the articles are pretty simplistic. has lots of room for improvements. and so far great extension for news reading. Edit: After more research I have found a few issues. Labels Far-left websites such as CounterPunch as reputable and have good journalistic standard which is completely incorrect. While seemingly having a left bias so that most of the conservative websites have low standards which is also incorrect. Good thing this is still in Beta as it still has quite a bit of work to do but i think they will get there! Many times the it get to N/A results on Cato Institute among others. Hope to see it out of Beta and fully working soon! Vox news is far from being reputable, they skew facts to fit their opinion as their website is mostly opinionated website. They very rarely or barely correct their mistakes that they have put especially if it's political. They even went so far as to justify the needless violence, against people who were misclassified as white supremacist or even escalated a peaceful gathering, perpetuated by Radical Leftist/neo communist, ANTIFA. There also appear to be a miscalculation of how many references there are on a certain webpage take for example Vox's House Bill article, it says that Vox is very divers sources and links. The article has 2 links and one of them refers back to their own website. At least you got the rating for Buzzfeed and Vice (both of them being relatively similar) are correct! Al Jazeera is a state run news agency it skews facts and misrepresents them to better represent themselves. It's funny that RT News is rated poorly but AL Jazeera which is just as bad is rated very well. | |
| 2017-11-28 |  | | Thoughtful, well-designed, and minimalist extension that lets me know when the stories I'm reading are rough. | |
| 2017-11-17 |  | | Biased stories is something I almost never think about, until I started using this chrome extension. Love it! | |
| 2017-11-15 |  | | Our prejudices come from seeing only one side, from allowing ourselves to blindly believe all that our one trusted/like-minded source tells us. With CivikOwl, each news item can be viewed objectively, based on its own merit and credibility, irrespective of where it is coming from. That can get us closer to the truth. Thats why I believe CivikOwl is making a big contribution towards making the world a better place. | |
| 2017-11-14 |  | | Last year, while serving two presidential administrations as a White House Fellow, I went through a spell where I stopped reading the news altogether. I felt overwhelmed by the unceasing barrage of sensationalistic news on both sides of the political spectrum. Moreover, I didn't have the bandwidth or the patience to ensure that I was reading the highest quality news available so that my perspectives and policy recommendations were as well informed as possible. In the midst of that, someone suggested I take a look at the work that CivikOwl was doing. What I found was refreshing and exciting. The CivikOwl team is committed to encouraging thoughtful civic discourse through high quality news. Their Chrome extension does exactly what I need: it ensures that I make the most effective use of my time by not only providing instant feedback on the quality of the news I'm reading, but also suggesting the best related articles from both sides of the political spectrum. I have been so excited about the work that the CivikOwl team has been doing that I asked to be on their advisory board so I could be a part of this exciting journey they are on. We all have biases. There is wisdom in recognizing them. CivikOwl helps us avoid our tendency to read only news that aligns with our existing biases by making us smarter and more efficient news consumers. Keep up the great work CivikOwl! | |
| 2017-11-14 |  | | The CivikOwl team has developed an incredibly smart and thoughtful solution to help people consume news more intelligently. I’ve been advising the company. I got involved because assessing the bias and trustworthiness of news today is challenging. CivikOwl helps me assess the biases and quality of the news I am reading and introduces me to other high quality articles to balance out the biases. It does all this in a simple, clean, unintrusive way. Great work CivikOwl! I can’t wait to see how the product continues to evolve. | |
| 2017-10-30 |  | | relevant and interesting suggestions, love it. |
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