Google Adds News Personalization

downbad writes "ZDNet is reporting that the Google News home page is now customizable, allowing you to add or delete main news categories (such as business, sports and so on), as well as increasing or decreasing the number of headlines within a section. They've also introduced a feature that lets you create your own section using keywords for a topic that interests you."

Being a mobile user I love the text only option...

[garcia (6573)]

Being that I'm a mobile web user most of the time I really appreciate the addition of text only [google.com] news.google.com. It's not that the page didn't load fast enough as it was but the text only version is left justified and is rendered a lot better than it normally is.

While you can modify the layout to left justify almost everything now it still doesn't remove the "customize this page" box and a couple of stories (from Top Stories) on the right side. Oh well it's still in beta ;)

Re:Being a mobile user I love the text only option

[tehshen (794722)]

I browse on a mobile phone, and its screen is teeny tiny (think 128x128 pixels). Google is clever enough to sniff the user-agent and provide a small, 5-result version for me, which I think is rather nice of it.

It's a shame this only works for web searching, not Groups or News. News returns a file too big error, even with the text-only version you mentioned. Is there a way to get a mini-version of the news site as well?

Google devotion

[northcat (827059)]

Would slashdot have reported this if it was Yahoo (or something else) which did this instead of Google?

No

[brunes69 (86786)]

No because it wouldn't be news, sinc eyou have been able to do this at http://my.yahoo.com for going on 3 years now. As well, My Yahoo! leys you add RSS feeds... Google doesn't (although they let you add custom search feeds, which is different).

Re:Google devotion

[Simon (S2) (600188)]

Would slashdot have reported this if it was Yahoo (or something else) which did this instead of Google?

No. Because if Yahoo! did it, it would be cluttered with ads and unusable, but if google does it, it is a new useful service that is interesting and makes intelligent use of new implementation of current technologies (like the drag&drop customization of the news items that interest you).

Re:Google devotion

[northcat (827059)]

I'm not sure whether you're being sarcastic or serious.

Re:Google devotion

[Simon (S2) (600188)]

I'm sarcastic. Yahoo! news [yahoo.com] is here since ages and works like a charm. Sorry for me writing such an incomprensible post.

Re:Google devotion

[weierstrass (669421)]

No. Because if Yahoo! did it, it would be cluttered with ads and unusable, but if google does it, it is a new useful service that is interesting and makes intelligent use of new implementation of current technologies

This is exactly the attitude that has turned the front page of /. into adspace for any new crap google think they're going to dominate the world with this week. Google provide a pretty decent search engine. In fact it's probably the best. This does not mean that their 'beta' email system is any better than anyone else's, that they are a benevolent company who love technology for it's own sake, that they are the future of the Internet, or indeed that they are trying to do anything other than maximise shareholder value by providing marketable web services.

Re:Google devotion

[Bobman1235 (191138)]

This does not mean that their 'beta' email system is any better than anyone else's, that they are a benevolent company who love technology for it's own sake, that they are the future of the Internet, or indeed that they are trying to do anything other than maximise shareholder value by providing marketable web services.

While I mostly agree with what your'e saying with regards to google's benevolence, you CAN'T argue that when they do things, they do them pretty well. They DO have the most useful and least obtrusive search engine. Their email system has the best interface I'VE ever used for a web client, and it's lightening fast compared to all the other biggies (yahoo, hotmail). Their new map system is really fast and easy to use - missing a few features, not ready for primetime, but still faster and easier than mapquest or yahoo! maps.

The Slashdot community is acting like a bunch of little fan-boys--big surprise--but that doesn't mean that they're not at least in part correct. As long as google keeps doing things right, WHATEVER their motive (which is obviously to make money), peopel are gonna continue to love and praise them.

Re:Google devotion

[skraps (650379)]

Speaking of Yahoo, is anyone else afraid that Google will turn into Yahoo if they keep adding services?

Every time they come out with something new, everyone says "oh cool, i'll use that!" But look at Yahoo's homepage after ten years of that business. I'm sure there are some good services in there, but it's hard to find them among all the ... other good services.

Re:Google devotion

[shawn0122 (866574)]

That is a constant worry because when companies try to cover everything like Microsoft, they seem to stop innovating on the products that made them what they are in the first place. Google is much better then Yahoo by having many built in functions accessed through the search field instead of displaying them on their home page.

Saw it this morning

[Hamfist (311248)]

I think it's great. I'm a Canadian, currently in Chile, and in preparations for a move to Mexico. I am interested in US News, Canadian News, Mexican News, and International News. I could care less about Sports, Entertainment, and Health News, so I get rid of them. This is even better than workspaces for me.

Good work google.

Re:Saw it this morning

[Matthias Wiesmann (221411)]

Same thing here, I used to switch between the Swiss, French and US google news sites. Now I can use a single page with the news I am interested in.

One nice feature would be able to select news geographically (in particular for local news). Countries are not really a good granularity when you are close to the border. I suppose the ideal solution would be to have new geo-tagged, but we are not here yet.

Re:Saw it this morning

[Hamfist (311248)]

That's an excellent idea, you should develop it some more and sell it to Google :) I'm sure they's find good use for it. As I find myself moving about in this world, being able to get the information most relevant to my situation is becoming more difficult.

One example would be very useful, I think, would be the ability to select one or more countries to search in from the main Web search. Currently Google does this for the country specific subdomains (google.cl lets me restrict search to Chilean pages)

Re:Saw it this morning

[lucabrasi999 (585141)]

US News, Canadian News

Isn't that pretty much the same thing?

Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

Re:Saw it this morning

[Hamfist (311248)]

Hehe, that's fairly funny. Hope it get's modded up.

On the serious side, the news that shows up for Canada and the US is wildy different from google news. I get tidbits of news from the cities where my family lives. I don't think anything that happens in Calgary will make the US news page unless it affects US Interests.

Whats your custom section?

[8400_RPM (716968)]

I created a custom section that searches for movies. What has everyone else added?

Yahoo's been doing this for years...

[orlinius (181137)]

What's exactly the news here?
Yahoo's been doing this for years.

Ah, I forgot, it's Google. Anything as much as a difference in the atmospheric pressure around the Google campus makes the front page on slashdot.

Re:Yahoo's been doing this for years...

[dfn5 (524972)]

What's exactly the news here?

Maybe that Google has just started doing this making it a current event and therfore news worthy.

Yahoo's been doing this for years.

Yahoo having started this service years ago makes it not a current event and therefore not news worthy.

Re:Yahoo's been doing this for years...

[weierstrass (669421)]

They breathe air at Google?

One Word

[by Anonymous Coward]

They've also introduced a feature that lets you create your own section using keywords for a topic that interests you."

Porn.

Doesn't work AT ALL

[doublem (118724)]

Don't bother. I tried. All you get are stories about Jacko and guys with similar interests.

I added categories for "Heidi Fleiss", "Anna Nicole Smith" and "Tonya Harding" which accomplishes the same thing I'd LIKE a "Porn" category to accomplish, but avoids nasty topics that are very bad for my libido.

Business Direction

[Puls4r (724907)]

News, Maps, etc. It certainly appears that Google is poising themselves to become a one-stop internet site.

However, they won't be able to do so without becoming an ISP. So the question is, where and when will Google break into the ISP market so they can capture a gauranteed customer base to compete with Yahoo and MSN?

Is there a likely company for Google to partner with?

Re:Business Direction

[odano (735445)]

Why does google need to be an ISP?

I don't think google is worried about capturing a guaranteed customer base, because they already have one. If somebody is doing a web search, the plurality of users already come to google. As long as they keep adding more features, I dont think they are going to have to worry about losing these users to Yahoo/MSN.

Also, if somebody wants to switch search engines from yahoo->google, they just change the URL. But if google gets into the ISP market, what incentive is there for people already happy with their Yahoo DSL service or Verizon/MSN Service to switch? They may save a few bucks (assuming google can even field a more competitive price), but they have to go through the entire hassle of changing ISPs just so they can have google automatically be their homepage?

Now...

[Ailure (853833)]

I hope i'm not the only one who want a such featuree on Slashdot too. Wouldn't that feature be quite useful here?

Next Week's Headline

[altek (119814)]

Google Switches to Slashcode, Hostile Takeover of Slashdot In Planning Stages ;)

Re:Next Week's Headline

[SpongeBobLinuxPants (840979)]

Tomorrow's headline:

Google Adds News Personalization

Support for Opera

[TheJavaGuy (725547)]

Customized news requires you to have both Javascript and cookies turned on. Your browser must be Internet Explorer 6.0 (or newer), Netscape 7.1 (or newer), Mozilla 1.4 (or newer), Firefox 0.8 (or newer), Opera 7.54 (or newer), or Safari 1.2.2 (or newer).

Wow, Google finally relased a product/update that works on the Opera browser. It took a long time for Google: Suggest, Maps, etc. to work properly on Opera.

Kudos to Google.

Re:Support for Opera

[justforaday (560408)]

It took a long time for Google: Suggest, Maps, etc. to work properly on Opera.

Let's see...Google maps was unveiled on February 8. Opera (and Safari) support was added on February 28. Oh yeah, that's a horrendously long time...

whoopdy-fricking-doo

[stubear (130454)]

I've been able to do this for years with MSN.com. The latest incarnation of this site allows me to not only customize the home page, I can also add specialized content pages. In addition to my general home page which includes traffic reports, weather, headline news, and Slate editorials amongst other things, I have pages for more in-depth coverage of local and national news, sports, a comics page, and a movie listing and reviews page. MSN.com has content from hundreds of sources from content providers li

Customize news.google.com for your dictatorship!

[Seumas (6865)]

New, from Google!

Tired of unfiltered news from the democratic infodels of the world cluttering the mindset of your nation's population? Worry no more!

With only a few clicks of the mouse, you can customize the news categories, topics, outlets and reporters that you wish to be provided to your nation. Even better, use our genius inline search and replace system that lets you manipulate simple regexes to substitute chosen phrases with your own!

Just another service from your friends at Google!

(Well, it's an idea...!)

Sub-Par

[hamlet2600 (739627)]

I honestly believe google is doing amazing things with internet based UIs, but this one leaves a lot to be desired. Its not very intuitive and I find it kind of hard to use. Its not nearly as elegant as gMail or as easy to use as Maps. I wonder why this one seems to be a shotty hack.

personalized news

[by Anonymous Coward]

"They've also introduced a feature that lets you create your own section using keywords for a topic that interests you."

Can you say "Targeted advertising"?

Share preferences

[Ronnie Coote (251572)]

You can also share your preferences with others, because Google will show you a URL which will generate your selected view. At bottom of the page, hit 'Share your customized news with a friend'.

Presumably, the code provided in the URL is a reference to a great big lookup table that they keep with everybody's preferences (custom search terms, layout etc). I have set up lots of custom search terms, and the URL is certainly not long enough to contain them all.

ok

[TOWebstress (855727)]

This is okay, but I'd rather see Google do what Google does best -- that is, break new ground and not just re-package what other portals have been doing for years. Call me nuts, but I would have expected more of an "oh cool" factor coming out of Google on this.

Diamond Age

[IceFox (18179)]

This reminds me of little tidbit from Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. Because "in the future" all the common people got high targeted newspapers containing stories that they would like and it was a sign of status to actually read the normal full New York Times rather then to only get the articles it knows you are interested in. Kinda like /. already. Those who read only /. eventually think that everyone reads /. and cares about issues that are on /.

-Benjamin Meyer

Alternate reason?

[STFS (671004)]

Maybe I'm pulling BS out of my ear here but does anybody know if this kind of personalization is being used to "sort" search results to personalize them as well?

I mean, Google (or MSN, Yahoo or whoever does this sort of thing) should be able to find out some "personal preferences" of people depending on how they sort their news website, what they filter out and so on.

Even worse, are they using this to personalize Google Ads?

im amazed ppl dont see the dangers

[tkjtkj (577219)]

yes, it amazing .. Here is an entity, Google, which seeks to gather all the info in the world, to associate it with particular users (gmail, etc) , to store it forever, and to fail to gaurantee privacy!! Read the 'Privacy ' statement, people!! Yes , they'll keep it sort of private WHILE THEY OWN THE DATABASE!! The COULD have said that no future sale of the company to another owner would not include that enormously valuable database, but they did NOT say that. Wake up!! This is a monster in the making, gearing up potentially to have devastating power over just about everyone.

Re:im amazed ppl dont see the dangers

[TheFlyingGoat (161967)]

Just like almost any other web service out there, if you're uncomfortable using it, don't sign up. That's pretty simple.

Google News is good enough on its own without requiring the user to login and customize the search, so it's not like they're forcing you to provide your data. It's 100% opt-in.

Additionally, since a free email account can be 100% anonymous (unless they subpoena your name from your ISP, which they can't do on their own), there's no way to link all that data to an actual person. Think Google is invading your privacy? Change your account once in a while or don't sign up to begin with.

You tinfoil hat types need some common sense.

NO MORE SPORTS!!!

[doublem (118724)]

YES! Now I can at long last get rid of that stupid, pointless Sports category!!

WAHOOO!!!

Re:NO MORE SPORTS!!!

[RobotRunAmok (595286)]

YES! Now I can at long last get rid of that stupid, pointless Sports category!!

Right On!! With the time you save not having to pagedown past the Sports Section, you'll have more time to write in your blog!

They missed: NO subscription/registration

[starman97 (29863)]

It's the one thing tha most annoys me about Google News.

I'd like to filter out all the sites that require some sort of registration to view them.
If Google did that and made it prominant, a lot
of those sites might change their policy since
poeple would be ignoring them. If not, then too bad
for them.

Epic just got closer to truth

[the_argent (28326)]

Epic 2014 [robinsloan.com]

Can you title your page?

[mntgomery (620581)]

If so, you can just add keywords "Google", "Apple" and "Linux" and call it Slashdot.

Google ads?

[TuringTest (533084)]

Did someone read the title as "Google Ads new personalization"? I was already thinking that I could personalize the ads that I could get from Google...

Is Google still Google?

[plasticmillion (649623)]

When I saw this story my initial reaction was to jump for joy. I'm an avid Google News user particularly because it's so "Googleized"; i.e. they use statistical methods to cluster stories together and figure out which ones to display where and in what order. Others may do this as well, but Google News does an exceptionally good job.

So when I saw that they had added personalization, I assumed it was going to be something along the same lines, something that does my thinking FOR me, thank you very much. For example, wouldn't it be cool for the news page to adapt organically in response to stories you click on? So it would realize that I'm a golf fan (yeah, yeah, I'm even dorkier than the average /. user) and stop displaying all those NFL and hockey stories in the Sports section that I couldn't care less about.

Instead, we get the same basic layout customization and keyword matching that Yahoo has had for years (as many others have pointed out). I scratched my head for a few minutes about keywords I could use, but frankly my tastes are a bit too subtle to sum up in this way.

This could be a real story, but only if Google works a little of their statistical magic instead of taking a me-too approach.

Who says the age of free stuff is over?

[dpbsmith (263124)]

Just a few years ago, customized news was supposed to be one of the much-hyped big-money profit opportunities of the Internet, and... I'm trying to recall the names of some of the companies pursuing it as a business model... Individual?

The theory was that busy executives with no time to read the whole Wall Street Journal and no interest in serendipitous discovery of significant news items would gladly pay to get the news filtered so that they only saw items in the preselected categories of interest.

Yep, Individual.com [individual.com] still exists and appears to be operating on a business model of free-as-in-beer.

May the potlatch continue!

Re:Why?

[lucabrasi999 (585141)]

Why is it suddenly news that Google have caught up?

Because, let's face it. Over the last couple of weeks, the news has been rather slow and /. needs to post something every now and then. Otherwise, all of us would lose interest.

Re:Why?

[RobotRunAmok (595286)]

I mean, let's face it. Yahoo, Reteurs and many others have been doing this sort of thing for years now. Why is it suddenly news that Google have caught up?>

"News?" Who said anything about "News?"

You can't tell me I'm the only one here believing that money is not changing hands here. Because the Google and EFF stories don't appear in the little boxes off to the top and sides of the page does not make them any less than the paid advertisements they are.

I'm sure the rates are premium as well, cuz thi

Re:Why?

[pilkul (667659)]

To assume that /. does not have some system of quid-pro-quo in place to ensure front-page story placement for a client, especially given all the non-Google/EFF slashvertisements, is bizarrely naive.

Marge: Do you want your son to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or a sleazy male stripper?
Homer: Can't he be both, like the late Earl Warren?
Marge: Earl Warren wasn't a stripper!
Homer: Now, who's being naive?