Google News to end magazine support, offer refunds to eligible users

With readership shifting majorly to a mobile-first platform, the likes of Google and Facebook are focusing on reducing page load times for news articles. Google had initially rolled out its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) services to its Search platform, and publications were free to adapt it to make their pages load instantly and give readers a seamless reading experience. Recently, Google integrated AMP to Google News too, making its mobile-first intent very clear.

Google’s AMP is a similar initiative as Facebook’s Instant Articles, wherein pages consume lesser data and load instantly. Publications will possibly look to integrate both into their stories; seeing that Facebook has now become an essential tool for publications to reach out to a massive reader base.

While adapting to Google’s AMP standards is easier as it has to be implemented from the publication’s end, Facebook’s Instant Articles on the other hand requires publications to be approved by Facebook itself, till now. While some have already adapted to both, others are yet to do so.

Nandagopal Rajan, Editor-New Media, The Indian Express, explained the goal behind adapting to both the standards, and how he hopes it will affect readership. He said, “Our goal is to be available for our readers on all platforms and hence we are using both platforms effectively. Google AMP and Facebook’s Instant Articles increase our reach by removing the hurdles faced by users in low-bandwidth situations. With both, pages open in an instant and there is no delay. Hence we are not losing readers who would have earlier been put off by the wait to open a link.”

http://www.exchange4media.mobi/digital/google-news-gets-speedier-with-amp-feature_64165.html

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Google is working on improving its core Google News service by attempting to incorporate hyperlocal results in the news feed. News stories from local news sources will now be tagged as “Local Source” on Google News on the web as well as on the iOS and Android apps.

The update to Google News will now source information from local sources and “hyperlocal blogs” to present a more local picture of a situation. In their blog , Google says, “With more than 75,000 news sources, many of the publishers in Google News specialize on specific topics and locales. The local section in Google News surfaces content from regional papers to hyper-local blogs that otherwise wouldn’t appear in national news.”

Attempting to justify the move, Google quite rightly points out that once a news source of any importance, such as a national news service, picks up a piece of local news, the local source is lost. Google’s algorithm will help solve that problem and will help local sources gain recognition and bring them greater exposure.

Google also adds, “at Google News we are committed to connecting people to the news that matters most to them—be that local, national or international.”

Google News will now highlight local sources for local news Tech2 Mobile

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