Google News Reformats

[Brett_Tabke]

The new heart of the homepage is something we call “News for you”: a stream of headlines automatically tailored to your interests. You can help us get it right by using the “Edit personalization” box to specify how much you’re interested in Business, Health, Entertainment, Sports or any subject you want to add (whether it’s the Supreme Court, the World Cup or synthetic biology). You can choose to view the stories by Section view or List view, and reveal more headlines by hovering over the headline with your mouse. We’ll remember your preferences each time you log in. If you don’t want customized Google News, hit “Reset personalization" to clear all personalization preferences. If you haven't previously customized and would prefer not to, simply close the “Edit personalization” box. You can always go back and change it later.

[izurl.com...]

[loner]

I just use Bing to search for what I want. My wife likes yahoo news.

-

[Eurydice]

The redesign is another Google disaster.

The new "Edit Personalization" is a very simple tool. It worked better before.

A few months ago, a block of users were randomly selected and switched to the beta of the new design. The comments were furious and angry. People hated it. Instead of double columns, there was a single column. That meant more scrolling. Google also added a large block of items at the top that couldn't be removed or edited.

The test was over and a sigh of relief.

And now, that redesign has been forced on all users. Look at the comments and feedback. People hate it.

But Google doesn't care.

[steve40]

I must admit 3 months or so during all the bing hype , I tried Bing news at the same time as search , I dropped Bing search and go back when google looses the plot ( More Than Used To but not enough to send me to bing full time ) but I much prefer Bing news than G so use Bing for news all the time

STeve

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

No thanks. If Google hires some of their own writers I may revisit. I've had enough with the overdose of mashup sites lately.

a stream of headlines automatically tailored...

That's the definition of spam since none of the stories are Google made. Report(repeat) all of the world's information, fine, but at least grow an opinion(OF YOUR OWN, not more user gen crud) to share along with it? The mashup dominance has gone too far.

edit: Deja vu, Google has pounded my message above into us for ages. Take your own advice G, please.

[edited by: Sgt_Kickaxe at 7:50 pm (utc) on Jul 1, 2010]

[jonathanleger]

Hideous hideous hideous. I loved the old design. I think this will make me stop using G News.

[nethead]

@ Sgt_kickaxe: If Google did that to the news section, aren't you afraid that they may decide to make the web like that? Hire their own writers and write about every subject and topic and redirect all searches to Google.com? It wont be fair and people are looking for various opinions and not Google's point of view on news and issues that impact our lives.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

nethead, no I'm not worried, Google isn't an editorial company and they would struggle to compete against established writers.

They would likely leverage their search results to promote themselves, and it may work for a time, but it would also be their undoing.

I may be giving Google very little credit but until they START showing more than just "arrange it like you want" value to their mashup I'm not a fan. The hypocrisy isn't lost on me, in fact Google even tells us all we can't rank well without offering more.

edit: I feel like I've been saying nothing but negative things about Google for the past two weeks. I never expected to feel this way about Google but they are disappointing me with their every change lately. Where's the Google I fell in love with, the Google that did it all bigger and better?

[arizonadude]

Too funny..

I used to really like the Google news feature and thought Bings was not that great, now after the change, I hate the Google news feature and find myself using the new Bing news.

It's as if Google is doing their best to drive people away.

[SteveWh]

I've set up several gadgets in My Yahoo that show text-only (my preference) news headlines from a variety of sources, which I can view at the same time as checking email. It looks like this setup is going to be even more streamlined than Google News has been.

The Reuters site looks ok, as do some of the print newspaper sites, but they are mostly image-heavy for my dialup connection. If just checking to see quickly what's going on, it's a bit of a nuissance to wait more than a minute for a page to load.

[engine]

What a mess!

Once again, like the fading home page, google decide what's best.

It's here to stay, so either get used to it or look elsewhere.

[Tropical Island]

First of all - I HATE IT!

It used to be one of my favourite daily visits - now I just get mad.

Please all of you go to [google.com...]

and protest.

Even if it's only to allow us to opt back into the old format.

When I first found the help forum it was on the first page when you clicked "Why is news different?".

Now you have to click through 4 pages to get there. Does that tell you something?

They didn't like the comments left.

Please comment there.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

I tried to give it a couple of days but...

The news page looks like it's full of adsense ads. Worse actually, IT LOOKS LIKE STOCK ADSENSE ADS with it's green url link, a couple of barely there black colored lines of text and blue title.

Was looking like adsense ads the plan? Perhaps to get Google news readers to read real adsense ads elsewhere?

[ken_b]

As I said in the other thread...

I dislike the new format a lot. But where else to go?

I liked the old layout because it allowed me to get a quick peek at stories I might not otherwise see. That led to my reading a bunch of stories I wasn't actually looking for at the moment.

With the new layout I'd be a lot more likely to quickly click on "Business", etc and never see the sports, health, whatever I wasn't looking for right then.

I'm trying Bing News out for the moment. Sometimes "progress" sucks!

[Kufu]

I didn't realize I had wondered into a 'We hate Google' support group.

I for one think the change to the news page is an improvement. And I can't be the only one.

[arizonadude]

I didn't realize I had wondered into a 'We hate Google' support group.

I for one think the change to the news page is an improvement. And I can't be the only one.

Even die hard Google fanboys can dislike the look and from what I'm reading, you are in the minority at this point since the majority of people seem to dislike the change.

Google news used to be the only thing about Google I liked, now I have no reason to visit Google properties at all and find Bing's new news feature layout more to my liking.

Google has succeeded in turning a used to be die hard Google supporter, into a person who no longer uses Google for anything and now uses Bing for all my searching and news and finding it's every bit as good as Google.

[Reno]

Google has every right to change their own website, however I wish they would give people more choices, especially when they make major changes to layout (as they also did with the SERPs after MayDay).

In the case of their News page, I'd like to be able to click the "Settings" link and have as an option "Display the Classic News Format". That cannot possibly be difficult for them, and does not use up any extra bandwidth. But it increasingly appears that in too many ways their attitude seems to be "our way or the highway", and more & more folks are chosing the highway.

.....................

[Eurydice]

Folks, you have to see the feedback at Google News.

Blistering attacks on the changes to Google News. It's worse than user reaction to Facebook.

It's really funny. Look for a reply from the Google news team, and check out the votes on the reply. Zero. That Googler quickly disappears and never posts again.

[google.com...]

[macavity]

I'm a long time Google News user and something of a Google fan if truth be told.

I've now moved to an alternative news source...

[ppc_newbie]

So why do I have to do "setting" which IMO is just another excuse for Goog to track you, and what you are reading.

[Reno]

So why do I have to do "setting" which IMO is just another excuse for Goog to track you, and what you are reading.

Unless a person is clearing their history, deleting cookies, and turning off personalization, they're already capable of doing what you fear. IMO none of that should be "ON" by default, but clearly Google differs, and unfortunately for myself (and probably many millions of others as well), it's a pain in the butt to have to remember to constantly protect myself from their data gathering. So given the reality of the situation, I'd at least like to have the news presented to me in the previous user-friendly format, but that most likely won't happen either, so if I want to continue reading G news (which I still do mostly out of habit), it looks like I'll have to do it their way.

ps. I'm surprised at how difficult it is to break the Google habit ... makes me glad I never smoked.

..................

[Robert Charlton]

IMO, they've completely blown in. The new version is awful.

Previously, I could scan many sections quickly, like a newspaper, and then dig deeper into various sources. Now it's an endlessly scrolling list, with no points of focus. I realize I've hardly looked at Google News since they've made the changes.

Folks, you have to see the feedback at Google News.

Blistering attacks on the changes to Google News.

Heated negative reactions. Yeah, once in a while it's good to see so many people agree with you....

Google News is experimenting with new features. Please let us know what you think! [google.com]

420 of 421 people found this answer helpful....

471 of 478 people found this answer helpful....

345 of 347 people found this answer helpful....

301 of 302 people found this answer helpful....

114 of 114 people found this answer helpful....

259 of 261 people found this answer helpful....