Google News leaving Beta!

Woohoo! Since the initial launch, Google News has added support for many different languages and countries, added customization to create specific sections just for you, supported sign-on with a Google Account so that you can get you customized news anywhere you want, improved the scoring to find more relevant news sources, and added support for RSS/Atom feeds. With the launch of recommended and “most popular” news stories, Google News is leaving beta. That’s one beta down, only 237-ish to go! πŸ˜‰

27 Responses to Google News leaving Beta! (Leave a comment)

  1. “237-ish to go”. Ha! Should be done by about the end of the millenium at this rate!

    So how’s Google going to profit from it … I don’t see any ads? Are you going to eventually charge to be listed on News?

  2. I currently split my news between Google News and Findory. They have both have their advantages. Google News keeps track of my clicks with the rest of my Google information. Also, it clusters articles about the same story together, which helps if you are getting a lot of redundant stories. Findory doesn’t require a login to start personalizing your news (it just leaves a cookie, but if you sign up for an account (no e-mail or real name required), you can take your recommendations with you). Also, it is more focused on the ‘long tail’ and instantly starts customizing your results with stuff you wouldn’t normally find. Also, it separates blog results, which some would like. I also find the interface of Findory to be easier to scan than Google News. They are different approaches to news and personalization and both have provided me with good finds.

  3. Neat … but nobody is taking your 237 Beta-Tests seriously. I am wondering why Google News was so long Beta? New features can be added after the Beta phase. IsnΒ΄t a Beta phase mostly for finding bugs?

  4. A Different Matt

    Ok, so we’re trying to do our taxes, and log into adwords to get total costs 1/1/2005 to 12/31/2005. We get a message from adwords saying “an error has occured, and the Google experts are notified.” So, like, we need this for TAXES, so we email support, explaining the situation, and get this response:

    “Thank you for your email. I understand you are unable to view your account statistics between 1/1/2005 to 4/30/2005. You can adjust the date range on your Campaign Summary page to view your account statistics for this particular time period.”

    Like, DUH, did anyone really read our email? We only figured out it was 1/1 to 4/30 by trying the selection range like 12 times and narrowed down the problem. What to do? It’s for TAXES, you know, the government needs our money but we try to keep what we can.

  5. Hi,matt: There is a guy from Yahoo said he watched Google’s sites and recommanding short sell on GOOG, what do you say?

    πŸ™‚

  6. Top story in the UK right now: Conservative Party Wins in Canada Election.

  7. ok; I’m lost. I want to join, comment, contribute, whatever, but i don’t know how. Can I get a little help?
    (PS – I have been around the block for 58 years).

  8. No RSS feeds in the Spanish Version :(.

    If this URL could be possible,
    http://news.google.es/news?hl=es&ned=es&q=your-search-here&ie=UTF-8&output=rss

    I would be really happy πŸ™‚

  9. Where is sweden?! Sure it’s -10C here but we still have things happening worthy of a news site πŸ˜‰

  10. Cool πŸ˜€

    Any ideas when Big Daddy will come out of Beta πŸ˜‰

  11. Hi Matt

    Just wish to ask whether you are going to attend Danny’s Search Engine Strategies NYC – February 27-March 2, 2006.

    Maybe you take with you few signed pictures for your fans πŸ™‚

  12. Hi Matt,

    Any chance of an update of whats happening with Big Daddy?

    Any progress on the rollout etc?

  13. I still think you guys should do an events search…. make that a beta project.

    Google News rocks! Was following the Ford story on there yesterday….

  14. That’s one beta down, only 237-ish to go!

    I may be reading a bit too much into this, but it almost seems like you guys may be spreading yourselves a bit too thin. I can understand the importance of not putting all your eggs in one basket and all that, but right now your bread and butter is your search engine.

    If you guys keep branching out too far into other projects, then the very real possibility exists that the search engine will suffer. There have been quite a few problem reports that haven’t yet been addressed from what I’ve read and seen, and if they don’t get addressed, then the rest of those beta projects don’t matter much.

  15. I apologize for posting in this thread, but I just found this blog recently and read a very old post about a site that was de-listed due to spam/cloaking techniques. Some fellow posters (including Matt) gave her some very helpful tips. I think I got busted for the same thing but cannot be sure.

    As a result, I have now taken over complete management of my site and began to implement some SEO techniques. Since my site has very little textual-content this is a challenge.

    I read one of Matt’s entries about an email from google telling you if your site meets inclusion requirements etc… However, it appears that you cannot request this email to be sent.

    Is it out of line to ask the readers of this blog to look at my site and offer suggestions? I plan on petitioning for reinclusion, but want the experts in this forum to give some pointers first.

    Thanks every for your help. My url is http://www.gentryfoto.com

  16. What are the requirements to get the feed of your site in google news?

    I think that sites with only one person generate better information than other that can more people but only one work a little.

  17. Google news is still lacking very much. Yahoo has it right with their most popular. Very interesting news.

  18. But it looks like Google News RSS is not out of beta http://news.google.com/images/news_res.gif still the default logo on Bloglines.

  19. I personally love Google News as a publisher. We have a site that provides news to Google and love the results…

  20. Now, if only Froogle would follow the news product out of beta. That’ll make me a happy camper. I’ve stated at SES before, and I will again next month, it is responsible for a ton of sales for us as well as many other sites. Why doesn’t it get the “out of beta” love that it deserves? =)

  21. We loved Google News too as publishers of news content on the web, but of course due to some technical glitch of an unknown source we were cut off and now Google News won’t bother to address the issue.

    Enjoy your results Ben, until Google tires of you….

  22. Just incase it was overlooked, when you search news.google.com you still have “Beta” in the logo.

  23. I think i found a little bug on googles search page at the bottom where there is a link:

    “Info when you want it, right on your desktop
    Free! Download Google Desktop”

    Im trying to click on the result page 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 next. ect. but the link isnt there for me to browse deeper than the top first listing top 10..

    the only thing clickable is the download google desktop. thought i would give you a heads up Matt.

    πŸ™‚

  24. hi

    how can i add my sports news page to google news ?
    many thx

    St

  25. How does a site get added to google news?

  26. Any tips to getting travel news content on Google news? πŸ˜€ Google News does in fact rock – but surely there’s enough travel & vacation news though to warrant it’s own section? πŸ™‚

  27. Google News is top quality. You couldn’t expect anyone to pool online new resources as well as Google do. It’s the first place I head whenever I want to check the headlines.

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