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Google Super Searchers

Developed October 2021

Super Searchers is an information literacy training program developed in collaboration with Google and launched in August 2023 through the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association. The program provides resources for Google users to understand the context surrounding search results, built directly on Caulfield's SIFT method. According to PLA, the training is "built on work developed by University of Washington researcher Mike Caulfield."

The program has achieved remarkable scale: it has been translated into a dozen languages, and in India alone over 11,000 educators have been trained. The training teaches users to use features like Google's "About this result" panel (accessible by clicking the three dots next to each search result), which provides context about websites appearing in search results — a feature whose design philosophy aligns closely with SIFT's emphasis on quickly checking what you can learn about a source before engaging deeply with its content.

The collaboration represents a significant scaling of Caulfield's academic information literacy work into mainstream consumer technology, reaching public library patrons and general internet users worldwide. Caulfield has described it as "one of the most successful information literacy initiatives in history." He also testified before the UK Parliament's Communications and Digital Committee on media literacy in connection with this work.