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Google News To Be Revamped, Incorporate YouTube Videos and Magazines (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the new-and-improved dept.

Google News is reportedly being updated with a "new design" that will "incorporate elements of the [Google Play] Newsstand app and YouTube." It will be powered by Google's AMP technology and is expected to launch at Google I/O 2018. AdAge was first to report the changes. From a report: A Google News redesign is surprising considering that the current design is less than a year old. It's unclear if the current design is just being tweaked to incorporate YouTube and Play Newsstand or if the whole thing is being scrapped and rebuilt. The report also mentions that Google News will get a new app. Google Play Newsstand is currently an odd hybrid of magazine store and RSS reader. The report says that Google Play Newsstand is going to close as part of the Google News redesign. This is the second time we've heard of a "Google Play" brand getting the axe: Google Play Music is also expected to close when it merges with YouTube. We should learn more about the changes at Google I/O, which starts next week on Tuesday, May 8.

19 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. why does everything have to be video? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can't we just read it? More efficient, more pleasant, less annoying. I guess they must get more ad revenue when they can force us to sit through video ads.

    1. Re:why does everything have to be video? by stephanruby · · Score: 3, Informative

      Google News lets you blacklist any news source you want from the "sources" tab, so if you dislike youtube that much, you can just add it to the block list.

    2. Re: why does everything have to be video? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You have to be signed in - no anonymous news browsing

    3. Re: why does everything have to be video? by dfm3 · · Score: 1

      You think you're anonymous just because you're not signed in?

  2. It'll still be consumer un-friendly by Lurks · · Score: 1

    No doubt the key problems will remain: the failure to flag pay-walled content and the total inability to blacklist particular news sources.

    1. Re:It'll still be consumer un-friendly by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Google news will not only continue to be crap, it will get a yet worse interface and Google will continue to ignore negative feedback from beta testers and users. I quit reading Google news a couple years ago and switched to bing/news. Don't miss it. Bing isn't great, but Google is terrible. At least Bing has a politics section and a less offensive user interface.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:It'll still be consumer un-friendly by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      No doubt the key problems will remain: the failure to flag pay-walled content and the total inability to blacklist particular news sources.

      Except you can blacklist news sources. Click the vertical "..." and you have the option of hide completely or recommend less often.

  3. Google News still exists? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I stopped using Google News with last year's horrific revamp. I'm shocked it still exists. The last thing I want is more video centric content. When I'm reading news, it's often when I'm places where having a video with sound would be a disruption to those around me. I also prefer skimming through to get the important parts of a story. Video sucks.

  4. Just Let Me Search a Topic and Sort By Date by Kunedog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The last redesign (sometimes?*) made it impossible to simply search a topic and view the results chronologically, so that I can easily see all new articles and ignore the old. Just let me do that, and don't censor based on politics.

    I'm not interested in videos on the news feed.

    * Sometimes it appears that part of the old Google news format is present, but usually when I search it goes to mobile hell.

  5. What I want from Google News? LESS. by shanen · · Score: 1

    How do I want thee less? Let me count the ways:

    (1) Mostly stop showing news sources that I've already assessed as sources of worthless sludge and fake news.

    (2) Fewer intrusions on my attention for no real reason.

    (3) Fewer updates. Should be a user default, and in my case I think I'd prefer to set it for twice a day.

    Several other thoughts, but the snark on Slashdot has reached such a tiresome level... I wonder if that's related to the evidently low interest in the story?

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    1. Re:What I want from Google News? LESS. by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      The snark is likely the result of "in order to improve the user experience" and "a fresh, clean new look" becoming such dreaded phrases.

    2. Re:What I want from Google News? LESS. by shanen · · Score: 1

      The snark is likely the result of "in order to improve the user experience" and "a fresh, clean new look" becoming such dreaded phrases.

      Are you talking to me? That was my original reaction to your comment.

      Upon reflection, I think you basically ignored what I wrote and substituted your pet axe so you could grind upon it. I could actually agree with you that some snark is justified in the specific cases you referred to, but I was referring to a much broader malaise. I even thought my reference was sufficiently clear. As your comment stands, it appears to be additional evidence and I am not surprised.

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    3. Re:What I want from Google News? LESS. by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      I appreciate such a thoughtful verbal flaying from someone opining about the snark on slashdot in general being tiresome.

  6. Not at all Surprising by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    "A Google News redesign is surprising..."

    No it's not at all surprising since Google has faced harsh criticism of that redesign, which put everything into a single column. The previous version was much more useful than the current.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  7. While you are at it by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    Also change the name, to make it more confusing. Even better, have two products that do more or less the same thing, with wildly different names. That will make things even more confusing. That seems to be Google's goal, right?

  8. Good news for Yahoo News! by nightfire-unique · · Score: 1

    If their revamp is anything like what they did to Google Finance, then Yahoo's about to get a bunch more page impressions...

    --
    A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
  9. lots of lost potential by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

    I used to use google news regularly, they seemed a perfect aggregation of news with the option of adding your own sources, however I stopped because:
    - there was no option to turn off google pre-selection, so instead of having access to the latest news I kept seeing week old (or even more) posts constantly, I asked google service for such option - no response
    - I kept being forced upon with news completely out of mind, I don't even know where they find them, again, no option to select sources, or some basic fact check from google side, to be fair there is an option to disable a source, however they keep popping up, and somehow google algorithm finds them more important then some fact based news
    - final decision to abandon the platform was (constant) pseudoscience in science section, like "somebody calculated the end of the world on April ...", it might be a curiosity, someone might like it, but science?

    I switched to BBC and have never regretted since. I consider going to google news aggregation a waste of my time. In theory would be a great tool to have instant access to fresh news from many sources, but in reality is just annoyance.

  10. It kinda feels like Google's at the Microsoft by Shemmie · · Score: 1

    stage of development.

    Don't really innovate anything; just piss about at the edges and generally degrade the user experience.

  11. Confession time? by shanen · · Score: 1

    You've yet to say anything relevant. Are you some sort of troll?

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.