Google News rolling out card layout on desktop search results

Google is now rolling out a new design for the Google News search results while on desktop. The new design removes the news clusters of stories and brings you a single featured story in a card-like result.

What it looks like. Here is a screen shot of the before and after. On the left hand side you can see the new card-like design, while on the righthand side you can see the old cluster results for Google News search results.

Rolling out. This new user interface is rolling out now. I saw this last night and posted about it on Twitter. But more and more searchers are now seeing this new design. Google has confirmed with Search Engine Land Thursday afternoon that it is rolling out.

Why we care. As you can see, the new design showcases a single news story and does not show alternative sources from other news publishers. This may result in some Google News publishers noticing a decline in Google News traffic, while others may see big increases in Google News traffic. The features and only story shown in the card will get all of the clicks, whereas before, Google would show numerous stories that shared in the click distribution from the news cluster.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.