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Opinion: Google Unleashes Terrible New Update For Google News Upon the Net
Rei shares their opinion of Google's redesign of Google News: Google unveiled a "new look" for Google News, describing it as a "clean and uncluttered look." New design features include a mostly empty "In the News" box for trending-topics, most of which you probably don't care about; a double-height page header so that they can make the border around the search box inexplicably larger and add a four-option menu bar; large empty grey expanses that take up half the browser; and a new news section that presents half as many news articles per page. If you didn't think you were having to scroll enough when using Google News, don't worry -- Google's got your back with this new update. It's safe to say that Slashdot reader Rei is not so fond of the Google News redesign. Have you had the chance to view it yourself? What do you think of the Google News facelift?
Information density is very low. It wastes lots of space, presents less information, fewer links and what remains is spread over multiple URLs (for example, one has to click on "Local" to see local news).
Horrible.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
No matter where you are on the news page, be it halfway down the News section or halfway down finance, click to read an article, click back to go back, and you're at the top of the main news page.
Not a fan of the new format either, but I usually give myself a week or so to get used to it before voicing an opinion on these things.
Crap. Really crap. Think I'll stick with Reuters, CBC, and The Guardian - on my phone. It's pretty bad when a phone screen has a higher information density than a full-sized page.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I have noticed several news websites that have done something similar. Instead of mainly text, they add pictures so there are fewer stories per page. Often the lead story takes up one-quarter to one-half of the page. It becomes much harder to find information. And then, to add insult to injury, they reduce the contrast on the borders, and sometimes between the text and contrast. I generally wonder where they found there UI specialists.
Yes, I agree the new layout is awful. And not just in a retro-grouch "I don't like change" manner.
I have been realizing that "UX bros" are ruining computing for everyone. Computers have been turning into glorified toasters a little bit at a time, focused towards a single, minimal-click purpose, with any other usage sent to the trash. The new news site is another example.
I'm more worried about the content of Google news than the presentation, honestly.
The health section in particular has been full of complete nonsense. I've been seeing spam for viagra and weed lately. I'll know they've hit rock bottom when homeopathy pops up.
Just re-looked at it and noticed when I drag my cursor into a subject frame all the links brighten, very disconcerting.
The other point I would like to point out is the new format removed snippets of the stories from the article blocks so you cant tell whether it really is something you want to read or not. Now (to me) it scans like a wall of clickbait.
Meh.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Mine was already full of Goop stones and warnings not to put wasps in vaginas. The health section has been spammy shit-show for years, but the headlines were higher quality.
The thing is, the headline news quality has gone way down lately too. It used to be full of hard news, now it is over 50% misleading clickbait crap, even when it looks like it will be hard news.
The one thing it had going for it was the quality interface that gave access to a large enough quantity of data so that a person could eventually find all the news they wanted. The redesign substantially reduces the data quantity, with no changes at all that would increase quality.
I don't want a biased feed that will give me the "real" news, or the news important to virtuous people, I just want the mainstream horseshit in a single straightforwards pile so that I can learn what is being said and triangulate a few truths if I care.
Feed wanted.
I find the new layout a perfect reflection of the typical content on Google News: dumbed-down and low information density.
Have you had the chance to view it yourself? What do you think of the Google News facelift?
The new Google News page is total and utter crap. For a minute I actually thought someone had hijacked and defaced the site or something. Then I realized it was a redesign. You can't find anything in there. I mean I searched for some recent major world news item that I heard about and it was nowhere to be found. I guess they hadn't rebuild the index yet even. The design is full of useless borders and cruft which is totally against Google's own minimalist website design philosophy. And everything is freaking huge. I feel like my desktop screen is the size of a phablet. Looks like one of them "mobile optimized" sites. Blech.
I thought I was seeing the mobile site by mistake. The new layout is from Satan who is the Devil. Information density is down by about 70%. All I see is white space (Gray space?) with a single column of news articles down the center. The old layout was far more usable for me.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
The entire staff responsible for this should be fired.
Gone are the the article intro's or summaries. I feel forced to select sources, instead of getting a mix of counter points and different perspectives to gain a better picture and understanding of events in the news.
With this format I see less News, it doesn't expand my view into things I am not seeking. It does not promote learning or discovery of other things in the world.
Its has significantly less information and less variety of news being reported.
It actually hurts my eyes to look at and gives me a headache.
That entire staff, management included do not understand user experience and design. Maybe a few of them got lucky being apart of some team that did something considered good. Its also as if Modern Web design is following the trends of the High Fashion industry that create clothing that few people could afford and most people would never consider wearing more than once. Its NOT something I will look at daily anymore unless this white washed and over simplified presentation of information stops catering to the 3 second attention span crowd who can't read anything beyond a headline or a tweet before their head hurts.
Google's Standards, if this is an ideal of example of them are broken, at least for the desktop experience. I hope they do not apply similar UI/UX standards like this to gmail and search.
They need to revert this change, and fire the entire staff responsible, imho. That particular group responsible for that change has completely lost touch with the world that exists outside of the bay area and mobile devices.
Assaults to my eyes like that Google New change, make me wish I were blind so I didn't ever have to see that. The more things like this that come out of the bay area, the more I think we are building a world like Mike Judge's Idiocracy movie portrayed.
Looking at that site re-design and trying to use it are almost as uncomfortable as hearing or reading anything about our current POTUS and the fact that that millions of years of evolution and thousands of years of civilization lead to this.
Stop the world please, I am ready to get off.
So I see that you think that google doesnt have its own server-side cookie tied to your IP addresses.
"His name was James Damore."