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Google Adds News Personalization

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-doesn't-it-do dept.

downbad writes "ZDNet is reporting that the Google News home page is now customizable, allowing you to add or delete main news categories (such as business, sports and so on), as well as increasing or decreasing the number of headlines within a section. They've also introduced a feature that lets you create your own section using keywords for a topic that interests you."

12 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. Being a mobile user I love the text only option... by garcia · · Score: 5, Informative

    Being that I'm a mobile web user most of the time I really appreciate the addition of text only news.google.com. It's not that the page didn't load fast enough as it was but the text only version is left justified and is rendered a lot better than it normally is.

    While you can modify the layout to left justify almost everything now it still doesn't remove the "customize this page" box and a couple of stories (from Top Stories) on the right side. Oh well it's still in beta ;)

  2. Google devotion by northcat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Would slashdot have reported this if it was Yahoo (or something else) which did this instead of Google?

    1. Re:Google devotion by Simon+(S2) · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Would slashdot have reported this if it was Yahoo (or something else) which did this instead of Google?


      No. Because if Yahoo! did it, it would be cluttered with ads and unusable, but if google does it, it is a new useful service that is interesting and makes intelligent use of new implementation of current technologies (like the drag&drop customization of the news items that interest you).
      --
      I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.
    2. Re:Google devotion by skraps · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Speaking of Yahoo, is anyone else afraid that Google will turn into Yahoo if they keep adding services?

      Every time they come out with something new, everyone says "oh cool, i'll use that!" But look at Yahoo's homepage after ten years of that business. I'm sure there are some good services in there, but it's hard to find them among all the ... other good services.

      --
      Karma: -2147483648 (Mostly affected by integer overflow)
    3. Re:Google devotion by Bobman1235 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This does not mean that their 'beta' email system is any better than anyone else's, that they are a benevolent company who love technology for it's own sake, that they are the future of the Internet, or indeed that they are trying to do anything other than maximise shareholder value by providing marketable web services.

      While I mostly agree with what your'e saying with regards to google's benevolence, you CAN'T argue that when they do things, they do them pretty well. They DO have the most useful and least obtrusive search engine. Their email system has the best interface I'VE ever used for a web client, and it's lightening fast compared to all the other biggies (yahoo, hotmail). Their new map system is really fast and easy to use - missing a few features, not ready for primetime, but still faster and easier than mapquest or yahoo! maps.

      The Slashdot community is acting like a bunch of little fan-boys--big surprise--but that doesn't mean that they're not at least in part correct. As long as google keeps doing things right, WHATEVER their motive (which is obviously to make money), peopel are gonna continue to love and praise them.

  3. Yahoo's been doing this for years... by orlinius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's exactly the news here?
    Yahoo's been doing this for years.

    Ah, I forgot, it's Google. Anything as much as a difference in the atmospheric pressure around the Google campus makes the front page on slashdot.

    --

    A hungry bear does not dance!
  4. One Word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    They've also introduced a feature that lets you create your own section using keywords for a topic that interests you."

    Porn.

  5. Customize news.google.com for your dictatorship! by Seumas · · Score: 5, Funny

    New, from Google!

    Tired of unfiltered news from the democratic infodels of the world cluttering the mindset of your nation's population? Worry no more!

    With only a few clicks of the mouse, you can customize the news categories, topics, outlets and reporters that you wish to be provided to your nation. Even better, use our genius inline search and replace system that lets you manipulate simple regexes to substitute chosen phrases with your own!

    Just another service from your friends at Google!

    (Well, it's an idea...!)

  6. personalized news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "They've also introduced a feature that lets you create your own section using keywords for a topic that interests you."

    Can you say "Targeted advertising"?

  7. Share preferences by Ronnie+Coote · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You can also share your preferences with others, because Google will show you a URL which will generate your selected view. At bottom of the page, hit 'Share your customized news with a friend'.

    Presumably, the code provided in the URL is a reference to a great big lookup table that they keep with everybody's preferences (custom search terms, layout etc). I have set up lots of custom search terms, and the URL is certainly not long enough to contain them all.

    --
    Candygram for Mongo!
  8. ok by TOWebstress · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is okay, but I'd rather see Google do what Google does best -- that is, break new ground and not just re-package what other portals have been doing for years. Call me nuts, but I would have expected more of an "oh cool" factor coming out of Google on this.

    --
    You see the look on my face, and yet you keep talking.
  9. Diamond Age by IceFox · · Score: 5, Informative

    This reminds me of little tidbit from Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. Because "in the future" all the common people got high targeted newspapers containing stories that they would like and it was a sign of status to actually read the normal full New York Times rather then to only get the articles it knows you are interested in. Kinda like /. already. Those who read only /. eventually think that everyone reads /. and cares about issues that are on /.

    -Benjamin Meyer

    --
    Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?