If you’re already using Google News to get your hit of all the latest stories every day, you might have noticed there’s been a bit of a change. This is a result of the fact that the way users want to receive information over the internet has changed, and we now want to see more of the stories that affect us directly – as soon as they happen. Google knows this, and has always said they’re interested in how they can provide information that is more personal to the individual viewing.
And so as well as the changes they have made to their standard search index, and the launch of Google Chrome, they’ve also improved Google News, making it more flexible, personal, and sociable.
The latest News site is being rolled out in the US to start with, and the first thing you’ll notice when you land on the home page, is that is has a slightly different appearance, but you’ll have to look a little bit closer to find the best bits. The first is a new feature Google has introduced called “News for You”. Here you will find news stories automatically selected for each user based on what Google thinks they’re most likely to be interested in.
The idea is to provide the news stories that are relevant to each person, as well as the rest of the news from around the world. To fine-tune this function even further, you can help Google out by telling them what kind of stories you’d prefer to hear about. By letting them know if you’re more interested in business or sports, health or entertainment, you get more of the news that you want.
You can even include particular subjects you’d like your own personal newsfeed to focus on. The personalization options don’t stop there. If you tell Google News which news sources you are more interested in, the content on your news page will focus on including more information and stories from the sources you rate, and less from those you don’t.
Of course, there are still news stories that effect us all, and the Top Stories section gives you instant access to the big stories being covered by all the major news agencies – without overloading you with information. Each big news topic has a single link in the Top News section, and when you click on the link, it takes you to a list of all the stories about that topic, from each of the major news outlets.
There’s also more focus on the other stories which, although they might not be breaking news, don’t deserve to get lost in the sheer volume of news that gets generated. Google created its new Spotlight feature last year, to make these “other news” stories more visible, and it’s become so popular it’s got a better position in the new layout.
With easy access to the top stories, options to personalize your newsfeed and focus on news and information that’s local to you, the changes to Google News are designed to give you all the stories you want to see in one place. And with new options that let you share stories with your friends, by e-mail and other social networking sites, you could be breaking the news and not just reading it.
Mon, Jul 5, 2010
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