Most Readers Don't Like Customized News

An anonymous reader writes "Despite the push by organizations such as Google and Yahoo!, a recent study found not everyone is a fan of web-based customization for news. The researchers defined customization as when the user gets to choose specific topics to read on a daily basis. Instead, some prefer personalization. This is when the system chooses content based on a reader's past choices. 'The obvious assumption is people would like more control over what they read,' Sundar said. 'We found when it came to evaluating new stories and quality of content, customization was the preferred method for power users. If you were not a power user, you wanted the system to tailor the news for you.'"

Comments

Re:I disliked it when Google changed up

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

it fouled up my reading to no end. From the different layouts to it choosing stuff it thought I wanted over others. I prefer the old version much better. I am more likely to visit sites like DrudgeReport which throw it all up there and I pick and choose with ease instead of trying to figure out where something I might want to read went. I bounce between CNN/FOX to get all the stories afterward and then back to google's news collector.

It's like this latest remodel of google news has thrown away all the good parts, specifically:

1) The mostly random nature of the articles and publishers grouped by category on the front page (i.e. sports, world politics and business sections)
2) Density of the layout - I get lot less headlines to pick from than I used to

I don't even let google set a cookie or use javascript so I assume its gotta be even worse for 'normal' users.

FWIW, the current layout reminds a lot of the old Nando Times news website which was freaking awesome ... 15 years ago.