Google News Brings Editor’s Picks To Home Page

More than a year after the experiment began, Google News has brought Editor’s Picks to the home page of its US site– marking the first real human-curated content on what Google has proudly said was always a completely algorithmic way of presenting news.

It could also be seen as something of an olive branch toward publishers, especially given the shaky relationship that’s existed between the two.

In today’s announcement, Google says it’s been working with “nearly two dozen publishers” in the Editor’s Picks program — a group that includes “local, national and niche publishers.” On quick glance, many news sources that you’d expect are already involved: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and so forth. (CBS Marketwatch is shown above.)

How To Join Google’s Editor’s Picks Program?

So you run (or work at) a news organization and want to be part of the Google News Editor’s Picks program?

Luckily for you, Google’s already figured as much and offers some guidance on how to put together a custom RSS feed for this exact purpose:

• News content only in the feed (no subscription offers, etc.)
• Logo image required
• Feed must be updated at least every 48 hours with new content
• Content must include authors’ names
• Headlines should be brief
• Feed must have at least three articles at all times

If you’ve got all that taken care of, use the contact form to submit your feed to Google News … although it’s not clear exactly where on that form the RSS feed link belongs.