Comments on: Do Users Really Want Social News From Google?

By: Google Looks to Twitter As a Social Layer for News « Blog do Allan

Google Looks to Twitter As a Social Layer for News « Blog do Allan — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 21:29:26 +0000

[...] has made a number of enhancements to try to make its news offering more social, including a redesign earlier this year that added a section called “News For You,” and also allows users to give news sources a thumbs [...]

By: Google Looks to Twitter As a Social Layer For News: Tech News «

Google Looks to Twitter As a Social Layer For News: Tech News « — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:44:06 +0000

[...] has made a number of enhancements to try and make its news offering more social, including a redesign earlier this year that added a section called “News For You,” and also allows users to give news sources [...]

By: Google Looks to Twitter As a Social Layer For News: Tech News «

Google Looks to Twitter As a Social Layer For News: Tech News « — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:44:06 +0000

By: Alex White

Alex White — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:19:14 +0000

This latest redesign of Google News is terrible and has crippled what was once a valuable resource. It’s a real shame, because Google News once used to be one of the best news services out there.

http://alexwhite.org/2010/07/google-news-has-destroyed-a-valuable-asset/

By: The New Digg Is More Social But Less Unique

The New Digg Is More Social But Less Unique — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:58:05 +0000

[...] that virtually every news source and aggregator is trying to do, whether it’s Google News with its new social features — which also focus on a stream of links called “News for you” — or the hundreds [...]

By: Dylon

Dylon — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:22:11 +0000

It is my thinking that social integration is actually essential to salvage the news industry on the internet, an already failing venture. Users need to be able to determine the best sources and a variety of them as well. Too often with Google News we get either a bunch of listings with the same story or one source dominating the feed. The ability to vote can drastically improve this feature and while a rankings system may seem the most viable option from afar, Google can simply use how you think to affect the overall displayed results.

We also have to remember, and news sources on the internet are quickly learning this, that Google is simply a gateway. It is simply a means to access your product. Google is not to blame for headline skimming or reading one sentence to understand the gist of a story. That lies with the product. What are news sources doing to bring me to their site? What are they doing to keep me there? What interactivity is there for me to enjoy?

I see Google stepping into the social sector as simply a means for others to follow. Being the trailblazer that it is, Google is willing to take the risks/experiments to see what works and help others apply their successes. It is the news sources who need to innovate and it has been their failure and stubbornness to do so that has left them only making money in the print world to date.

By: Funtomas

Funtomas — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:26:10 +0000

Personally, I don't care if it's useful or wanted now. I just can clearly see the trend and the GN redesign is just a hint of the things to come. Yeah, I'm talking about a reader and tablet market. Expect more battles over the news copyrights.

By: Brezza

Brezza — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:41:33 +0000

No, I don't want social news - and if there's anything I'd like to share I can copy and paste the link to a friend myself.

That said - The worst part of this redesign is the abandonment of the equally sized columns, leaving tons of blank space and annoying one-liners for stories. I also don't like that I can't move things around or get rid of things in the right-hand column (ahem... weather and FIFA). The search bar to the left is also redundant (but many people said that when Google changed its appearance and they didn't seem to care).

Most of the comments I've seen about this are negative, and Google seems to be taking the Zuckerburg approach of "They'll like it someday - the just don't know it yet."

No Google - I DON'T LIKE IT. Some of the personalization is nice, but the functionality is gone. The news page is an absolute eyesore and I can no longer conveniently skim stories to find those that interest me (and I could always use the search bar to find stories on specific topics). I used to use Google News several times a day and I spent a lot of today lamenting how difficult it was to find a good source that would show me clear and concise snippets of the day's news.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:35:05 +0000

Yes, people want social news. They want it filtered by Facebook (by their social networks) and by LinkedIn (by user characteristics like education, industry, job level, etc.). Some wanted it filtered by Digg, until Digg's user base became diffuse enough to make their filtering meaningless.

BTW - For technical reason, Google News thinks a lot of San Franciscans live in Alameda. Have you seen a way to tell it otherwise?