Google News Adds Expandable Clusters, Story Labels, & More To Home Page

Google announced some new features that are being rolled out to Google News users. The features include expandable and collapsable news clusters, story labels displaying diversity information, more multiple media content, more personalized news stories and changing the default view from a two column view to a one column view.

I personally do not see these new features, although I do see the settings for source options addition, which comes with the ability to click and define if you want to see more or less from specific sources. Here is a screen shot of that feature but make sure to read the story for more on that.

Here is a run down on these new features announced by Google today:

• Click-to-expand: Each story cluster is collapsed down to one headline with the exception of the top story. When something grabs you, click nearby anywhere but the title to expand the story box.
• Labeled diversity: For stories you’ve expanded, you’ll see genre labels for some of the additional articles that explain why they were chosen and how they add value. For example, you might see something labeled as an “Opinion” piece or an indication that an article is “In Depth.”
• Multimedia and more: Within each expanded story box, you’ll find a sliding bar of videos and photos, links to related sections and easier-to-use sharing options, so you can quickly digest the sights and sounds of a news story, dig into different types of publications and share what you find interesting with one click.
• Personalized top stories: The Top Stories section is expanded to six or more stories from three to give you more topic diversity. The first three stories remain unpersonalized and the same as before. The rest may be personalized based on your interests. To personalize your Google News experience you can click on “Edit” under “News for you.” You can choose the “Standard Edition” if you don’t want personalization.
• Less is more: The default view is now the popular “One Column” (formerly “Section”) view. We merged List View into Top Stories, as described above. You can still switch to “Two Column” view, which resembles classic Google News.

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• Google Adds Local News For Smartphone Users
• The Google News “Osama Death” Sample Highlights Some News Coverage Woes
• Google News Adds “Follow News” Button, Easy Way To Customize Home Page
• Google News Dropping Sites, Reviewing Inclusion Standards
• Google News Testing More Social Features With “Most Shared” Box

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.