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Google Is Testing a Trending Stories Feature On Its Homepage (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the more-news-is-good-for-you dept.

Jeff John Roberts, reporting for Fortune: Google and its rival Facebook have transformed into giant media companies in recent years, working with news and video companies as part strategy to encourage consumers to stay on their platforms. Now, it appears Google is taking another big step in this direction by showing visitors three trending news stories on its home page -- right under its iconic search bar -- as well as three "trending topics." Google's decision to display trending news topics mirrors what Facebook has been doing in recent months, and will likely provide more grist for the debate over how the companies curate news, and their growing power over the media. The change to Google's homepage began to appear this week, though it does not appear to have been rolled out to many users.

4 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. No... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, Google isn't testing anything. The reporter has Pocket's chrome extension installed that's injecting content into the page.

    1. Re:No... by niaxilin · · Score: 2

      Correct. Not Google.

      This story was updated at 11:30am ET to reflect that the trending stories feature appears to be a Pocket initiative; an earlier version said Google was behind the change.

      Why do people give Pocket (or any other) Chrome app full read/write access to google.com? Seems dangerous.

    2. Re:No... by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Why do people give Pocket (or any other) Chrome app full read/write access to google.com?

      Why do people install 15 different toolbars in their browsers?

      Why do people click links in emails claiming to be from the IT administrator that are poorly formatted and full of spelling errors?

      Why do people respond to emails claiming to be from the prince of Nigeria and send the person banking and personal information?

      The answer is that people are just really fucking stupid sometimes, or maybe even most of the time.

    3. Re:No... by p0p0 · · Score: 3, Funny

      The site even updated the article but the author still insists it's Google's feature and doesn't even really acknowledge that it was an extension doing it.