LazyTruth

Introducing Fuzzy Matching

Matt — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:09:43 +0000

You’ve probably noticed that the email forwards you receive pick up all sorts of additional cruft along the way. People add their own comments to the original message, and email clients add all sorts of additional symbols. That’s made it more difficult for us to find the right debunk to match the rumors in your inbox. But today, David Kim updated our service with fuzzy matching powers. That means you’ll get the most relevant answer to the email we have, even if the email itself has gone through some wear and tear on its way to you.

You might notice a bit of a lag while LazyTruth searches our misinformation database. We’re working to speed things up again!

LazyTruth now features Snopes and Sophos

Matt — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:20:08 +0000

In addition to fact-checked content from FactCheck.org and Hoax-Slayer, we now link you to verified information from Snopes and Sophos. Snopes is one of the original rumor-fighting websites on the internet, and tackles some of the most pernicious rumors on the web. Sophos is a computer and network security company, and their Threat Center tracks email hoaxes, viruses, and phishing attempts.

Thanks to Justin Nowell for adding this content!

We’ve won a Netexplo Award

Matt — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 23:13:05 +0000

Netexplo, supported by UNESCO, helps detect, analyze, and put into perspective future mainstream practices in digital society. We’ve been fortunate enough to receive a Netexplo award, along with nine other amazing projects. Here’s the fun video they made about LazyTruth:

by netxplorateur

LazyTruth Integrates Hoax-Slayer Content

Matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:16:55 +0000

If you’ve been pressing the ‘Ask LazyTruth’ button, you may not have seen many matches yet. There are a lot of misleading emails out there. So we’re lining up additional fact-checking content partners to expand the range of emails with matching debunks. We’ll announce new partnerships here as soon as they’re integrated in our system.

Today, we’re happy to announce that we’ve integrated Hoax-Slayer with LazyTruth. Brett Christiansen has been researching misleading hoaxes and scams from his home in Bundaberg, Australia since 2003. The city’s known for its rum, ginger beer and sugar cane. In other words, it’s Dark & Stormy paradise.

You can check out Hoax-Slayer on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.

Thanks for the nice words

Matt — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 05:52:00 +0000

The idea behind LazyTruth appears to strike a nerve. It turns out that many of us have someone in our life, often extended family, forwarding us baseless rumors and hoaxes. Since launching in October, we’ve been thrilled to see LazyTruth show up in the Economist, on Canada.com, and on nearly all of our favorite blogs. Here are our top referrers through January 11, 2013, in order of traffic sent to LazyTruth.com:

The Kim Komando Show
Lifehacker
The Atlantic
New Scientist
Twitter
boingboing
Facebook
Google Search
Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Beast
The Verge
Nieman Lab
Gizmag
Howtogeek
Engadget
Something Awful forums
The New York Times (Room for Debate blog)

Some sites linked directly to our Chrome Store listing (better for encouraging installs!), so they’re under or not represented here. Unfortunately, we don’t have those numbers.