Too late -- I was in the beta test group and told Google how much I hated their new news format, which they ignored. When they forced this on me a few weeks later, I uninstalled my Google Desktop and Google Toolbar, changed my home page, and now use Bing News. It's not quite as good as Google News used to be (lack of article descriptions on the main news page), but it's a whale of a lot better than Google's ungainly new news.

Too big to fail? I don't think so.

Too late. I switched to Bing and I love it.
Why didn't I try Bing sooner? Probably because of all that pro-Google propaganda floating around the web.

Yes, absolutely HATE IT. I don't care about World Cup news, but can't get rid of that section -- which Google has, in its infinite controlling wisdom, decided everyone should care about.

I blacklisted one blog under the News settings because of its nauseatingly moronic political bent -- which Google chooses to throw up to the top, as if it was a major part of the MSM. Now Google-OF-THAT-SAME-BENT chooses that one ridiculous blog (starts with an "H" and ends in "uffington Post") to throw in my face as an ad every time I go to the news page.

Yep, done with anal, ideologically clueless, controlling and manipulative moonbats.

Bye Google. Megadorks.

googe news is ruined now and hard to read. eish. will go to yahoo. no choice. what idiot did this? obviously DID NOT take a bite out of the bright cake. went from easily customizable and glance at reading to wortless, cumbersome and quite frankly..stupid. there is ZERO chance in hell they did any split testing on this. what idiot did this or made this call?

Glad to see I'm not the only one who hates it.

This is driven by Google's arrogance. You have a product and the product is good - you're lucky. Google however thinks GOOGLE is good and now everything they do is good.

Pride before the fall.

Hate it. Too much crap on the page. Hard to find anything.

The minor UI changes to search didn't break search for users. Results were still front and center, ranked by relevance. Where refining options are is purely a matter of style, not actual usability (except on the margins). No search results became harder to find as a result of the change; Google was just as functional aftrerward.

The major redesign to News, however, fundamentally breaks the "scan the headlines to know what's going on" model of news consumption. Headline scanning, as people in the newspaper business know, is the most common approach to news reading. By hiding a greater percentage of headlines off the bottom of the page, and by hiding the "alternate headlines" for each story (requiring a mouseover), the Google News redesign seriously degraded the most common approach to news consumption.

That's not just failure, but FAIL. It's as big a mistake as the paid placement in search results companies were doing before Google came along. If Microsoft has a clue, they'll put a team on adding all the old Google News features to Bing News right away, and corner the market for serious news consumers.

If Google were to allow us to remove each of the items from the right column (the "Recent", "2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa", local news, "Spotlight", "Google Fast Flip", and "Most Popular" sections), I and lots of other former users would return to Google News.

Most people will get used to the format changes as long as there is a way to remove unwanted content, especially all of this junk in the right column.

The Google folks use the word "personalized" to refer to this new format, but this is a lie. To force us to see all these unwanted sections without any way to remove them is not an example of personalization.

To refuse to respect the wishes of its (increasingly former) Google News users, the company is at best amateurish and blockheadedly insensitive and at worst insulting and arrogantly condescending.

As some people said in the Google Help Forum, Google's attitude towards its user base is getting to be more and more like Apple's ... and that's not a compliment.

I'd post a comment if I thought it had even the slightest chance of doing any good.

Switched to bing for search and news. Not using anything but gmail from them. They keep screwing with gmail (buzz,chat,etc) Ill stop using that soon too.

Dear Google "Moonbats" and "Megadorks":

General Motors....General Motors....General Motors.

Pride - and arrogance - and stupidity - all goeth before a fall. When General Motors decided that we, the people, wanted flashy costume jewelry glitz more than vehicles that actually worked, it signed its own death warrant.

When I went to check the News yesterday and discovered that Google had supposedly "personalized" it for me - and had delivered, therefore, a) headlines about Paris Hilton - unless she's clogging up my sewer system, I do not want to hear about her; b) local news about the Dominican Republic (I live in Minnesota!), I knew it was time to set up the Google Death Watch.

My General Motors Death Watch only took 8 years; how long will Google thrash in its self-indulgent, shortsighted swamp before it goes under? Certainly glad I never bought Google stock!

I used to be an avid Google News user; checking it several times daily to get my news fix. After a frustrating weekend of attempting to adapt to the new format and hoping that it would change back, I've given up and gone to news.ask.com/news. I no longer even use Google for searches and went so far as to install NoScript as an addon to keep Google's adsense and stats from running. Basically, I'm doing everything I can to purge Google from my life. This probably sounds extreme, but if they're planning on just catering to the Facebook crowd and charging for News in the near future anyways (which this is a step towards) it only makes sense to rid myself of them now - I encourage everyone to join me!

NoScript: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722/

Bings News: www.bing.com/news

Ask.com News: news.ask.com/news

While I understand that it's possible that only the critics are being vocal, and the majority of users love the new *improved* Google News, after reading lots of beta-testers' opinions, they were saying the same things. Seems like Google just wanted to do this, and figures it'll blow over. If they lose some users... cool.
Me, I gravitated to Google, originally, because of its simplicity, & uncluttered look. Now, there's tons of extraneous nonsense, & javascript, and less news. I looked at Yahoo & Bing, and they seem to be what Google was trying to do. My new news site is: http://news.ask.com/news. It's the closest to the simple, uncluttered, top news stories, I'm looking for. Google has outlived its usefulness.

What gives?!? This new layout has to be the most ridiculous, convoluted mess-of-a-newspage that I have ever seen. It HAD been my homepage for several years because of its easy to navigate layout...I can't even FIND the Sports page now. Whose brainchild was this and what on Earth were they smoking? Who in there right mind can look at this new layout and say: "Yeah! THAT'S better!" or "THAT'S more like it!" You have to be kidding me!

5 day trial -- FAIL --

I did everything - personalization etc.. really made an attempt to LIKE it.

I feel squished on the new page. I'm not forcing myself to like it, either. I'll probably end up using Bing search engine, too, as I won't have to make an extra search to get to the news page.

Google News is done. Over. Forget it. Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com. Google is insisting on inferiority. If anyone wants to subject themselves to the new terrible Google News, then they are welcome to it. I'll never go there again. Just awful.

Clint said: "The whiners are out in full force again..." Wow you are a steaming pile of dog crap aren't you?

I will agree with you that there where "whiners" on the other things google did but this change is HORRENDOUS. It is not whining when you are pointing out all the flaws with the new system. It is not whining when you call them on their lie of more customization.

What we are doing is giving google one last chance to live by their own principles. If they don't, someone else will. I bet there are several companies out there right now ready to take google's spot and google just opened the door a bit more for them to do just that.

You need to start reading here
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/news/thread?tid=62e50bfb23a1ec4a&hl=en
to get a real sense of what the populous really thinks. There are over 900 comments from really upset users. Mostly doing their be to be nice.

My feelings are What Google really wants is for users to "login" and personalize so Google can force feel specific ads at you so they can make more money. What a damn shame google. Here I was thinking that you were the cool ones...not so much my new home page, until further notice is news.ask.com bye bye

Epic fail! I've usually described byself as a Google fanboy and had yet to find a Google product I disliked but this is aweful! Chrome, android, and all of the rest are still awesome, but now Google has forced me to do the inconceivable and use Bing for news and I hate them for it. Almost as much as I hate Bing!

"The whiners are out in full force again with the latest changes to Google News"
Why the hell did you feel the need to add that comment? The "whiners" as you call us are the customers. If Google won't give us what we want we will go elsewhere. I liked the newspaper feel of the old page and I liked being able to make web serches from my homepage. This has got to be one of the dumbest damn things I have seen since New Coke. I've heard it said that Google is loosing market share. Well I guess if that's their goal, they just lost some more.

Sorry... all of this isn't whining? what is it? constructive feedback? No, most of it is indeed whining.

BTW, i wondered whether Google would cave to the whining or stick to its guns. here's the answer, just e-mailed to me:

"Google launches hundreds of design changes, so it would be impractical to offer multiple versions of each service. While it can take time to adjust to change, we've tested our latest Google News design thoroughly. We'll keep monitoring user feedback and so we can continue improving Google News."

barring a major plummet in google news use, i expect google to stay the course.

After a week trying to like the new layout, I'm going to try other sites. Mainly bing and techmeme. Google, let me know if you come to your senses and maybe I'll be back.

You really don't seem to get it. I'm not 'whining', I am truly sorry to lose something that was useful and valuable to which I had become accustomed. But even more important, the aspect that truly fuels the anger is the total lack of any way to provide any environmental counter-control.

Google changed something from good to, not useless, but offensive. I think people feel betrayed and want to punish them, but what can we do? Stop buying Google searches?

When sports comes on my local news, I change the channel. I don't care for it, I don't have to watch it. Now that Google has seen fit to bless me with 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ every morning, its time to change the freaking channel.

I hate the new google news site as much as liked the old one. Is there a way to tell google to stop this insanity. I checked bing but it is no where close to what google used to offer, but I should admit that it is better than the current train wreck that google has.

Google plz give me the old news site back!

Google News was awesome. It's exceedingly rare to find a site that delivers what I need in a manner that lets me get it more quickly and more easily than the original Google News. That is no longer the case. I cannot remove sections that are irrelevant to my news consumption and cannot organize them in a manner that duplicates that readability of the original. Additionally, I have a very large amount of wasted white space on the right side of my screen that I can no longer fill with news I want to read.

Of course Google isn't going to change. Why would they change if the pros assure them that all the complaints are simply whining?

I GAVE UP GOOGLE after your change on 7/1, for 6 days ... I came in again to check SOCCER SCORES, found this and just want to say RETURN TO WHAT you've been doing before 7/1, and i shall return, or, ADIEUS!

Shame.

It was almost flawless before. The uncluttered layout, the alternative sources highly visible and immediately available beneath each target story, the balanced "feel". It's all gone now.

Google News used to be the world's most efficient, powerful, and aesthetically pleasing 21st-century "newspaper".

Now it looks like a warez site. OK it's not that bad. But still, look at all that crap on the right sidebar! Mandatory World Cup sectional? Huh? Do I need to vote for Google before I can download my file?

But ultimately it's pointless to complain. The Singularity is almost at hand, and when we finally, permanently fuse man and machine, there will be no further need for a news aggregate site. All news will be known instantly, collectively, in perpetuity. It's coming. Be ready.

Kurvweil:

I want to believe, but I trust no one. The truth is out there and still I fight the Future!

Clint,

Your "before" and "after" images, taken from Google's announcement, underplay one of the primary complaints about the new design, which you only mention in passing.

The critical changes are below what the images show. The old two-column design makes efficient use of space (especially helpful with widescreen monitors)., and it's easy to "scan" the news, much as one would scan a newspaper front page.

The new design is like getting your news on a three-inch wide torah scroll. Impossible to scan, doesn't use available space, and to top it off, it has crazy and useless mouseover behavior.

Sadly, while Google News content remains good (I'm up in the air about whether some of the new customization is welcome), the new design makes it impossible to appreciate.

Imagine going to your favorite fast-food restaurant to find out they've decided to use clamshell packaging for everything, and you can't have it any other way.

Your article completely mischaracterizes the situation. Specifically, this paragraph and the accompanying screenshot is part misleading and part flat out wrong:

"Google News formerly employed a three-column top section with a two-column bank of stories below. Users could customize the placement of sections. Now the custom sections are gone and users must rebuild their custom content views."

1. The old version had two columns of actual news stories broken into sections (World, Business, Sports, etc), which your first screenshot does not even show. The new format has only a single column of actual news stories. The new right column is a hodge podge of random headlines with no organization. By only showing the top of each page, your screenshots completely miss a crucial difference.

2. More importantly, you don't even mention the customization of HOW MANY stories you get in each section. E.g. you could pick more Sports and fewer Entertainment, tailoring the news experience to your interests. That feature is now GONE.

3. Placement of sections (Sports, Business) on the page is also gone. However, that is a secondary concern after 1 and 2. You mistakenly portray this as the primary issue.

4. Users CAN NOT "rebuild their custom content views". The above features are GONE. It's not a simple matter of Google resetting user preferences, but destroying them.

You should understand what the issues actually are before dismissing them. I hope your other articles are more factually accurate than this.

@Clint Boulton ROCK ON!

If the future wasn't so underhanded in shoving down my throat "what the future thinks I need" I wouldn't fight future either.

But, since about 2000, maybe after the whole Y2K scare (WHATEVA), future is not concerned whether you like what future is feeding, it's about what future is willing to feed you. Future reels you in and then pulls the carpet out from under you.

I am all about evolving and trying new things but I am done with being force fed what THEY (Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, GOOGLE etc...) think I want. I just want to log on to my computer and be me. Note to everyone, advertising RULES this planet. Think about it, can you go anywhere and not see SOME kind of advertising...? if you think you can check the label on your underwear or the pocket of your jeans!

AND no I'm not a kook, I'm just fed up

Google news goes from straight-up eNewspaper to cluttered eNewsletter.

It is what they want to the Google news page to be. Google engineers are certainly smart enough to see that's where they were going with this.

I discovered the Google page change after it happened.

I wasn't aware that there was a prototype set up somewhere for inspection and comment. Nor do I as a rule care about such things, as the people who perpetrate them are just going to do what they want anyway, and if you want something changed all you need to do is wait, maybe find another vendor in the meantime.

The Google news page change completely surprised me. I have no idea why they changed it to what it is now, to me the changes are disruptive, irritating and senseless.

Instead of seeing six or eight news stories at a time, I'm getting three, maybe four, plus some other stuff I care nothing for. The new Google news page requires a lot more manual effort to use. I have a screen, I know how to use it. This format makes it harder.

Clint, one comment specifically to you: you should follow up with Ray Kurzweil to get more thoughts from him regarding the Google news change, since he apparently was motivated enough to leave a comment here. And I wouldn't call him a whiner.

-Mike

The exact nature of peoples' gripes was of lesser concern to me than the idea that people were so passionate as to complain en masse. what's the point, really? Google isn't going to change it back, so why delve into an exacting summary?

This could be a BIG problem for Google as a whole not just the news. As more users get used to checking their news on Bing, Ask, etc, they will eventually start using those search engines also. However, the worst damage to Google will be the negative feelings that once loyal users feel toward them. That never goes away.

I verily hate the new Google news format. I'm trying yahoo now, and will also visit Bing. Too bad they are not listening to users. It is not a matter of getting accustomed to the "new", but rather enjoying the previous format, that served me so well for so long.

The point, Clint, is to at least make it clear to Google's COMPETITORS what people so loved and now so dearly miss about Google News.

Bing, Ask, Yahoo, etc. are all poor substitutes for the highly customizable news sections we used to have.

And the first news site that figures out how to give that back to us, in a clean user interface, is going to get massive traffic.

Google could do it the fastest, simply be given people an option between the two formats.But if they continue to refuse, there is a huge online niche just waiting for someone to fill it.

You mean the customer is always right? :)

"The exact nature of peoples' gripes was of lesser concern to me than the idea that people were so passionate as to complain en masse. what's the point, really? Google isn't going to change it back, so why delve into an exacting summary?"

Ask Google. They're the ones encouraging feedback and not calling it "a steaming heap."

It all comes down to money and the old format wasn't bringing in enough of it. So now they've redesigned the news portal to be more compatible with their to-be-released paid service "Newspass". Same 'ole story, users get screwed while big corporation makes pathetic money grab.

Instead of bitching and whining about it to Google (who isn't going to listen)...it's better to communicate to Google's competitors and let them know what we want. If the competition has any brains as all then they're currently lurking in the Google's News forum taking notes on user feedback...something Google obviously doesn't give a sh*t about.

Google News has suddenly turned useless with all the dead space and irrelevant topics, etc. Bing keeps throwing popups at me that I can't disable, so that's out. Try http://news.ask.com -- pretty good!!

I don't need Google News telling me which stories are/aren't important:

On a daily basis, I go directly to the source, New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters, etc.

In addition, I subscribe to the RSS Feeds of a bunch of different news sources.

BTW, the New York Times web site has a nice Times Skimmer feature.

Same here...hate the new News format...off to Bing I go. Too Bad!

I've been an extremely loyal and long time Google user. I've used Google for mostly web searches, email and local new. But no longer! No longer will I be forced to accept changes without any option to go back. No longer will I be told that these changes are good for me and WHAT I WANT TO SEE. No Longer will I accept this. Who's with me? Can you say ASK.COM???? I knew that you could;)

Yep, I'm one who changed my homepage to news.ask.com. I've been a daily many-times-a-day user of google news for years until this change.

I'm also one of those users who never logged in. The layout, the font, the nice sections, the no-wasted-space. I have a huge monitor. I've never been interested in sports. For weather in my area ... hey, I look out the window or go outside.

Thing is, though, google news is free. Yes, I am annoyed and yes I have moved to another aggregator, but it's not like I was paying for a news service that was destroyed. I was using a FREE service that was destroyed.

I would better understand the outrage if we were paying customers for a service. Remember the days when you paid for every newspaper or magazine (unless you went to the library)?

I simply don't understand how we can expect to receive high quality, thoroughly researched and somewhat unbiased news (just the facts maam) if we aren't willing to pay for it (so those reporters can make a living).

Just look at what we are getting already. A ton of opinion that is presented as news, massively repeated and regurgitated content that originated from the AP wire, news that is actually advertising having been funded by a company.

Maybe, if we were willing to actually pay for people to be reporters and journalists, we could get a site that was as customizable and reader-friendly as we wanted and that contained quality news pieces.

I'm switching to something else. I'm eliminating google toolbar. I'm selling my stock in google.

Fool me once shame on you Google
Fool me twice shame on me.

Can't fool me again with your "experiments" 'cause I'm out of here.

@ KFineWhiner -- "...but it's not like I was paying for a news service that was destroyed. I was using a FREE service that was destroyed."

You are incorrect. Google anything (news, gmail, etc.) is NOT FREE. Google has my name, my email address, all my emails, all my text messages, my search history, the IP addresses I use, all my contact information (friends, family, business), my home phone number, my work phone number, my home address, the security configuration of my home wireless network, ... and on and on. They even have a picture OF MY HOUSE and FRONT YARD.

Get the picture yet, KFineWhiner? The author of the main article definitely doesn't seem to get it.

Google made a social contract with me when I first signed up years ago, and now they are abusing my good faith by expanding their use of MY PERSONAL INFORMATION in an AWFUL new redesign.

They are doing it in an arrogant and deceitful manner, and they've got a lot of shills covering for them.

The author of the main article is definitely a Google shill. If he wasn't, he would not act "mystified" by the reaction of betrayed users.

Anyway, being called a whiner by a Google shill is the last straw for me. Since Google has become a monopoly, I can't dump all things google, but I am dumping what I can.

And I will be writing my Congressional Representatives and the DOJ and FTC to protest Google's takeover of ITA. Since it has recently been revealed that Google has been spying on some important US Congresspeople, they may take more notice of user concerns than does Google.

Paul:

That is constructive whining at least.

The new Google News finally fixes the reason I haven't used Google News in years.

Problem 1: Too much emphasis on untrustworthy (liberal) news sources.
Result: Fixed. No more CNN, Huffington Post...

Problem 2: Too difficult to find the news you want to read.
Result: Fixed. i just created several new News Headings: "Obama Lied", "Obama Socialist", "Obama is in over his head" and I now have more stories than I can possibly read in one setting.

Review: AWESOME. Thanks Google! You finally let me take the bias out of your News page. Freedom of speech lives at Google.

The new design is like getting your news on a three-inch wide torah scroll. Impossible to scan, doesn't use available space, and to top it off, it has crazy and useless mouseover behavior.

I prefer Yahoo for news. For me, Yahoo is synonym with online news, Google with search (much better than Yahoo search). Something that I find interesting about Google news is that the redesigned version now includes a feature enabling users to select which news sources they would like to see more or less often. I see there are lots of Bing users above here, so, if Bing teams with Yahoo, as I’ve read in the news, Google will probably lose a significant chunk of its search as well... I’ve also recently read a report that said Google news visitors mostly scan or skim headlines (about 45 percent) and don’t click through. Is this bad news for Google? What I found quite funny was that Google Ventures invested in May in a company named Recorded Future that was working to predict the future. So, just as the South Africans predicted the Football World Cup winners using Paul, the famous oracle octopus (I found out using Yahoo news :)), Google could use this company to see what’s going to happen to the news readers, stay or move. I’m kidding. But we could raise some capital and invest in an octopus business there. :)

Google boggled this one. They didn't appear to have learned from Facebook's recent miscues. "Thou shalt not drastically alter the consumer's user experience unless you have (a) tested it (a lot) and (b) given the consumer ample warning."

The reality is, you can ignore the above, but then you've given people a strong motivation to check out the alternatives, such as Bing.

If enough people complain (and if they lose any share about it), Google may fess up to this "boongoggle" and backtrack.

Hey Clint,

FU for the whining crack. Google is this monster corporation all but taking over the internet and when they have you LOCKED in, as they do most people, then they change the terms of the relationship. So we make our displeasure known.

If you like, you can sit there are take whatever is given to you.

You might be happy to know, at least I've stopped my whining and have started the process of ridding google from my day to day. Google might not be as happy.

Here is the real problem...

Updated, July 6: When asked about this, a Google spokesperson told me:

Google launches hundreds of design changes, so it would be impractical to offer multiple versions of each service. While it can take time to adjust to change, we've tested our latest Google News design thoroughly. We'll keep monitoring user feedback so we can continue improving Google News.

What this says in Google is tone deaf to the user. They are saying that no matter what the user thinks, they know better what the user wants. And while all the feedback would tell them otherwise, they continue on with their fingers in their ears and saying "la la la la"

So, yeah, on some level it may be in bad form to complain about something that is free, still people obviously liked the old layout much better. I don't fault Google for trying something new. You never know when you might hit on something good. However, I'm disappointed in their arrogance when so many have said, thanks but it failed.

@Clint Boulton:
"The exact nature of peoples' gripes was of lesser concern to me than the idea that people were so passionate as to complain en masse. what's the point, really? Google isn't going to change it back, so why delve into an exacting summary?"

So the point of your article is that a bunch of people are whining, but it doesn't matter why. You are about as obtuse as google support on this matter.

I also switched to Bing! Resisted it for the longest time, but when Google News changed, I made the switch for everything, including search. Google aims to make money from targeted ads on the news page, but I think this was a misjudgment.

I have lost faith in Google compleatly ever since they were found spying on there users by Australian Courts and their bloody minded way of ramming down your throat their own views of there web site and then trying to contact them is next to being impossible,so I have removed all traces of Google from my computer and have Blacklisted them in my Firewall settings.Thank You

Dear Clint, the before and after pictures in your article are a deception copied directly from the official Google News Blog. As someone pointed out earlier, the change users are most upset about is not even shown. I believe one single aspect of the format change is responsible for 99% of the anger: The decision by some genius(es) to extend the left and right sidebars all the way down the page.

As for this article, with it's supporting graphics taken from the entity you're reporting on, snide remarks about whiners, etc., we should all understand reporters are sometimes unwilling to criticize major industries, businesses and institutions that butter their bread.

How about an article focusing on the insanity of treating product loyalty that competitors would pay a vast fortune for with utter disdain while claiming to be open to feedback?

Better yet, how about an article on Breaking News Feed created by one guy working alone in his basement to give people something an overgrown corporation has lost sight of: WHAT WE WANT.

Ha Ha! Good One!

I LOVE CHANGE!

What I hate however, are arrogant user interface designers who not only fail to address actual user needs, but then engage in a campaign of disinformation, claiming overwhelming acceptance.

It is the classic failure of the human condition manifesting itself within google. How sad...

I don't like the new Google News at all and I feel the same way about the new format for the search engine. I don't like the way the latter displays the search results and though I never had a problem with this in the old format now nearly every time when I go from the search results to a webpage (that was one of the results) then later click the back arrow to go back to the search results it for some reason zips all the way back instantly to whatever I was searching for the time BEFORE it, e.g. Googling "apples" then later Googling "oranges", going to an "oranges" search result webpage, click back arrow and it instantly flies back to search results for "apples". It's infuriating. This happens about 80% or 90% of the time, literally.

What we need is an option to revert to the old format for both so that the people who for whatever reason like the new crap versions can keep them but the rest of us can have our old Google and Google News back. Change just for the sake of change is senseless.