Who Is Speaking on a Brand Information Page

 A menu guide can know what comes in a sandwich without being the restaurant that sells it. Menu at Wendys makes that distinction unusually easy to find: its About page says it is independent of Wendy’s. A reader can use the guide for ideas while still asking the restaurant, rather than the guide’s editor, about the price on a particular receipt.

An app publisher is a different kind of source. A label such as “ Teen Patti Master Official ” makes a claim about who is speaking. On the linked homepage, the team behind the app identifies itself as the site’s operator. That makes the page a useful source for the name the publisher uses and the features it says it offers. It does not turn the company’s account of its own product into an independent review.

An easy way to keep that distinction in a story is to pay attention to the verb. “The guide lists a price” tells readers where a number came from. “The restaurant charged that price” needs a receipt or another record of the transaction. Likewise, “the publisher lists an Android download” is a statement about a webpage. “The file worked on this phone” requires someone to have tested it on that phone.

A familiar logo rarely answers the useful question. Ask who would be in a position to correct the particular detail you care about. For a mistaken line on an independent menu, that is the editor. For an unexplained charge on a receipt, it is the seller. The distinction is far more revealing than how official a page looks.

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