Is Human Intervention Really Necessary?

Basic PrinciplesOriginally in beta from 2002-2006Google uses same algorithm behind the

regular search engineNo human interventionOnly algorithm changedAvailable in 40 regions and 19 languages

Customizability

Website Layout Your Account

Current Stories

Organizational Tools

Alternative WebsitesMain competitors are Yahoo News and MSN News

Alternative Website Pros When accessing www.yahoo.com,

you will see a summary of top news stories on the home page (Google requires you to click “News” to view the top stories)

• Yahoo News provides news in 12 different genres on its News homepage as opposed to Google News which provides only 8 on its homepage

• Yahoo News works with ABC News to provide News video clips directly accessible from its News homepage

Google Pros Though the top news results on any one topic for all three websites

is generally almost identical, Google has some distinct advantages: Yahoo is customizable too, but Google is easier to customize and has more features

that a user can utilize when customizing for himself or herself Google allows one to type text in the search box on Google News and select either

“News” or “Web” whereas the other sites require you to return to the standard web search engine to conduct a web search.

Uses search history to provide a “Recommended For You” section of news. Contains an easily accessible archive of news articles (some spanning all the way

back to the 1920s.

Controversies Google News has brought up news results from controversial

websites, including an article from the white supremacist magazine National Vanguard. Has led to the development of a blacklist of IP addresses when

searching in Google News In addition, Google News has blacklisted any news that is also

censored by the Chinese government. Should Google censor its results?

Chinese ISPs would be forced by Chinese government policies to block access to Google

Google has chosen the lesser of two evils: A censored Google vs. no Google at all for the Chinese people.

Where Do They Get Their Stories From?

As a news aggregator site, Google uses its own software to determine which stories to show from the online news sources it watches. Human editorial input does come into the system, however, in choosing exactly which sources Google News will pick from. This is where some of the controversy over Google News originates, when some news sources are included when visitors feel they don't deserve it, and when other news sources are excluded when visitors feel they ought to be included.

Print MediaAdvantages of newspaper*Habit*Convenience*geographical advantage

Disadvantages of newspaper*People need to pay for it *Limited information*Less efficient

http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn