Why Google News Stands Out

Google news is an automated aggregator that gathers news from various websites using an aggregation algorithm that is provided by Google Inc. There are different versions of the aggregator that can be found in a wide variety of languages and that cover over 40 regions. This however continues to expand. At the moment, the service is able to cover news articles that have been live within the last 30 days. The front page offers a 200-character preview and then a link to the full content. For sites that require a reader to subscribe, Google makes it easy by noting it under the article description.

Over the years since the service was launched, there has been a lot of controversy over the sources of the news as well as issues regarding copyright infringement. Google news for example was forced to blacklist specific IP addresses from China following criticism that it was not including some sources that were censored in China. As a result, some sources that cannot be accessed from within China cannot be indexed for news by Google news. Google news offers readers the ability to search, sort and group news based on the date and time of publishing. Users also have the ability to request for email alerts on news articles based on the various keywords used. Use of RSS and atom feeds is also supported by the service.

Google news also offers users historical archives of news that date back to over 200 years. A timeline view is also offered that allows users to select from a particular time period and browse news articles in detail. It is also possible to view scanned newspapers that are part of the indexed content that Google archives. So how does Google determine what news stories to show? It does this by use of its own software. Since no human input is involved, the kind of news that Google sometimes displays has been a question of controversy.

One thing that has made Google news work this well is the fact that all its outlets are considered approved news outlets. This means that when you search for a news article on Google, you can be assured that you are going to land on a trustworthy site. In todays world, news is a commodity and anyone who makes it as findable as possible will capture readers. Google is definitely one of those players who are making access to information easy.