Is Google News Obsolete?
When Google News was launched four years ago, it did the one thing that newspapers refused to do, and that was link to other publications. The product was a hit -- and continues to be popular -- with the Web audience, since it offered an easy and surefire way of getting multiple angles on a story from several different publications. (Google News is the #1 traffic referrer to this blog.) This hasn't made newspapers very happy. Editors often bemoan that aggregators like Google News take traffic away from their sites and subvert the editorial process. But since the launch of Google News, companies and entrepreneurs have launched competing technologies that do a good (and perhaps better) job of providing news context. Today, newspapers have gotten wise to the link game, and they're starting to incorporate those technologies that will help them automate that linking process. In other words, newspapers are beginning to act a lot like portals. For example: Inform.com launched a new product today called Inform Publisher Services, which offers publishers a way to scan the Web for news and blog posts and offer them up as related links on a publication's article page. The company's goal: Get newspaper readers to spend more time on the newspaper's site, instead of using sites like Google or Yahoo to find the news. Inform's clients include The Washington Post, a newspaper that likes to experiment with Web journalism. Earlier this year, the Post started testing another linking technology, Pluck's BlogBurst, which helps the paper provide relevant links to blogs on article pages. Meanwhile, the Web is full of aggregators and UGC sites like Wikio, Topix, Reddit, Newsvine, Techmeme and Digg, which offer many of the same stories, some impressive collating and contextual technology, plus a good bit of attitude. |
Comments (16)
I think it's spelled "reddit
Posted by Jeremey Cook | July 31, 2006 9:07 PM
Don't you think Google is working on a news rating site like Digg ?
Posted by Daddy-O | July 31, 2006 11:48 PM
I love to compare the international pages of Google News: en Francais, in Deutsch, in Italiano... all on one customized page. For now I'll stick with Google news, they are international. By the way, it reads Wikio.com and looks very promising when available in several languages...
Posted by Christian Mueller | August 1, 2006 2:56 AM
I think Google could make a news rating site like Digg, but I don't think it's a priority. They already have a rating system in page rank, and a specialized search service with Co-Op. It certainly would be interesting, though, if they built a news ranking service that personalized your search based on how you rate the news.
Posted by Steve Bryant | August 1, 2006 9:15 AM
Yeah, it'll be wonderful when/if google adopt a ratings strategy like digg. I've always wanted a newspage where the majority of stories are about a new kind of electronic frying pan, and stories about men attacked by sheep after licking a helicopter pilots eyerows get a higher rating than relevant items...I like digg, i got to this page from it, but that alone consolidates the fact the majority of stories are banal at best.
Posted by Cymrubeats | August 2, 2006 4:40 AM
I actually don't like Google news. It seems far too messy. Yahoo news IMO is much better. Maybe because I'm used to it...
Posted by timw | August 2, 2006 5:17 AM
I prefer the way Newslookup.com provides a history so you can see what has been reported hour by hour on the home pages of major media. They have been around for a long time and it took Google and Yahoo News several years before they added similiar features on the news search side. Competition is good.
Posted by Rockyou | August 2, 2006 8:04 AM
What I like about Google News vs. Digg or Newsvine is that it's not user submitted. IE, I can search for "mel gibson," add the RSS feed to my reader, and bam! everything with his name that gets on any news site is automatically grabbed.
Posted by Chad Poirier | August 2, 2006 8:11 AM
Don't forget Findory News. After reading there for a while, it sucessfully offers me articles that I would have never found on Google News, Topix or Newsvine. However, Google News ability to leverage it's complex search language is IMO unmatched by the others. Probably the primary reason I keep using it.
Posted by Dave | August 2, 2006 8:36 AM
Google news is here to stay. The fact that no people are involved in the selection opf the article is what guarantees it's 'impartiality'. Digg etc. is nice, but all are easily 'gamed' in legal ways. Despite best efforts the top articles clearly reflect the 'tastes' of the user, which is exactly why these social sites are of limited use to the general public. Side note: I suspect in the near future Google may offer news listings based on your 'google fingerprint', i.e. the combined result of searches, site visits, news watched, products bought, etc. etc. All the news you're willing to read... Hence, the 'facts' and opinions you receive will be based on your worldview. Anyone scared yet? It's happening already with those who limit themselves to selective blogs that reflect their pre-conceived and non-tested ideas.
Posted by John Smythe | August 2, 2006 9:47 AM
Yes, Google News only spits out the same news stories you will see on TV news shows... If you want really interesting news, you have to get it from sites like this one: http://www.youpickthenews.com
Posted by Mike | August 2, 2006 11:32 AM
Findory (http://www.findory.com/) is one of the better aggregators. Its ai (by an early Amazon employee) does an amazing job of finding really good pieces out of the stream of blogs and news flowing through. http://www.findory.com/
Posted by Michael | August 2, 2006 12:23 PM
Here's another good news service - Newscri.be
Posted by keaneu | August 2, 2006 12:36 PM
Other sites like http://www.crispynews.com let you start your own news aggregation site. Perhaps that is the smart strategy given that there are so many sites out there competing for attention. Let others figure out what niches need to be filled and concentrate on the tech.
Posted by crispee | August 2, 2006 5:12 PM
Google News is still useful - no other site that i know of - indexes all the news it can find to be searched, the rest - digg, newsvine, all those, just use user-submitted content. Topix does something similar, but doesnt have a clear way of expanding sites to search on & lots of problems with dupes - there's currently 8-9 things on Kazaa on the page of /tech/p2p for example.
Posted by Zee | August 2, 2006 6:19 PM
Google News and others should add a little proximity factor to their algorythms. When the TV news channels break in with live news about some event in St. Louis or Myrtle Beach or Bend or any other city, the closest news outlets with reports online should appear somewhere on the first page of results. Often, Xinhau or Reuters or some random Web site from India with automated wire widgets shows up first with three or four paragraphs that tell you nothing. You have to look through page after page of results to find proximate results. Or you have to know the name of the closest news organizations to improve your search. Intuitive it is not.
Posted by Islander | August 13, 2006 5:44 AM