Google News will look completely different from now on | TechBuzz

The Google News product is 20 years old this year and the company is celebrating by giving the service a completely new look. The new design is intended to “reflect the changes in journalism”. For example, the web application gives priority to telling the most important stories.

Naturally, a lot of attention is paid to important news and personalized content, but Google also places a great deal of focus on local news offerings. From now on, you’ll find that section at the top, so you can see what’s happening nearby. You can also add multiple locations, so that you stay informed about other places as well.

Google News in a new jacket

Furthermore, Google now attaches more importance to checking news facts. For example, you may come across a claim next to a heading. In addition, there are fact checks, which are carried out by independent parties. This way you can immediately see whether a certain claim has something of value or not at all.

The English version of Google News contains another button that we have not yet encountered in the Netherlands. With that button you can personalize the topics you want to follow yourself (under the heading You follow). So you can manually adjust which topics you like to read about within the news feed of this service.

Is that button still there?

At the time of writing, it is not clear whether that button will come to the Netherlands. But in time it probably will; the question is more how long we have to wait for it. Furthermore, Google News is returning to Spain after a local law forced the company to withdraw from that country from its news offerings.

The question is, of course, to what extent the new look of Google News will be a success. It’s too early to say anything meaningful about that now. In any case, it is good to see that the company is moving with the times and is also giving other news items a more prominent place within the overwhelming offer.