Chris Beckmann, the Product Manager for Google News, posted “Google News changes reflect your feedback” on the Google News Blog. And it appears that the folks at the Googleplex have been watching and listening to your comments.
The redesign of the Google News homepage that was announced two weeks ago was the biggest since Google News was launched in beta in 2002.
By and large, Search Engine Watch readers had few complaints about the enhanced customization, personalization and sharing features. And according to Beckmann, “The positive usage data we saw during our months-long tests of the redesign has continued since we introduced it to all users of the U.S. English edition, and hundreds of thousands of you have already customized your Google News homepages.”
Okay, so I was a little grumpy when I posted Google News Redesign Offers “News for You” last Thursday morning. But I hadn’t had my second cup of coffee that morning. Then on Saturday, I asked, “Is the Google News Redesign a Repeat of the New Coke Disaster?” So, I admit that I, too, questioned whether revamping the Google News homepage was a good idea.
So, imagine my surprise this afternoon when I checked Compete, which has a diverse sample of 2,000,000+ U.S. Internet users that have given us permission to analyze the web pages they visit and ask them questions via surveys. When I looked to see if the protests over the Google News redesign had impacted the daily reach of the news search engine, I saw that they haven’t.
If you look at Google News, there a “new” way to view News for you: Sections! Yes, that’s actually the “old” way that the Google News homepage sorted top stories. So, it appears that Google has been listening to those of us who have asked, “Is the Google News Redesign a Repeat of the New Coke Disaster?“
When I quoted Leonard McCoy, who said in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, “I know engineers. They love to change things,” I was venting my own frustration. Let’s hope that the engineers have learned a valuable lesson.
The Official Google Blog announced that the company was “revamping the Google News homepage” on Wednesday. It’s only Saturday, but I already think the Google News redesign is a repeat of The Coca-Cola Company’s New Coke disaster in 1985.
My first indication that Google was in trouble came from comments to my post on Thursday entitled, Google News Redesign Offers “News for You.”
Brad said, “The new Google News blows! I want the old one back. I shouldn’t need to log in each time I want to check the top news stories (I switch between 5 different computers during a normal day).”
This morning when I checked out Google News it didn’t look the way it did yesterday morning. That’s because the Google News homepage has been revamped with several changes designed to highlight interesting stories I didn’t know existed and to make it easier for me to share stories through social networks.
That meant I had to start my day by customizing my Google News experience by thinking about how often I would like to read news from each of the standard sections and adding topics that I follow.
Hey, I’ve only had my first cup of coffee. Gimme a break.
In November 2009, I posted, “Murdoch to Google: Drop Dead.” It analyzed News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch’s threat to block Google from being able to search its Web sites. I said “maybe Murdoch should think twice before pulling the plug on 25 percent of WSJ.com’s traffic” and I concluded, “who knows, maybe the tables will be turned someday and we’ll read a headline like: “Google to Murdoch: Go Ahead, Make My Day.”
Then, in March 2010, I posted “The Times of London to Begin Charging Readers for Using its Web Site in June.” I asked, “Is this the first step towards making the business of news an economically exciting proposition, or is it the last act of a desperate man?”
Last week, I reported that six out of 10 news executives think the Internet is changing the fundamental values of journalism. Well, news search engines and social media are also changing industry best practices in newsrooms, too.
Image by SESConferenceSeries via Flickr
At SES New York 2010, there were two sessions that highlighted these changes. One was entitled, “News Search Optimization,” and the other was entitled, “Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday’s News.”
Among the speakers at these sessions were Topher Kohan, SEO Manager, CNN; Matthew J. Brown, Director of Search Strategy, New York Times Company; and Allison Fabella, SEO & Social Media Manager, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
According to Google Trends, three of the latest Hot Topics are volcano in Iceland, ash cloud over Europe, and air traffic.
Image by SESConferenceSeries via Flickr
So, what’s this mean to you?
Well, if you’re planning to fly from the United States to the United Kingdom to speak at the International Search Summit at the Barbican, London, on May 13, 2010, then it means you’re in the same boat that I’m in. Okay, so maybe “boat” is the wrong term.
At SES London 2010, I moderated a session entitled, “Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday’s News.” It focused on specific aspects of SEO for large media companies.
Image by SESConferenceSeries via Flickr
The panelists discussed the tools that media companies use to help them rank well for breaking news keywords. They also talked about how to capitalize on social media opportunities that exist within news content to help media companies to do well on sites such as: Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.
Following the session, I interviewed one of the speakers: Paul Roach, the Technical Lead for SEO at guardian.co.uk.
Google News is worse than average for sticky traffic.
Hitwise has run the numbers on traffic that returns to media sites according to referral site. Facebook is far and away the top returning traffic referrer. Google News doesn’t come close.
Perhaps the newspaper industry’s frustration with Google News is misguided. Ok, we already know it is. Google is simply indexing sites (with the exception of licensed content deals) – and users click to go to the site. Google sends traffic. But the quality isn’t as high as other sites.
