Google News is reportedly showing Polymarket bets and odds alongside traditional stories, appearing in the For You feed and in search results; rollout details are unclear and may be tied to existing Polymarket/Kalshi partnerships, prompting concerns about betting content in news results.
Google News is introducing audio briefings with a dedicated Listen tab, allowing users to listen to news summaries with source attribution and quick links to full articles. Currently limited to US users or those who change their region settings, this feature offers customizable playback controls and aims to provide a more flexible news consumption experience.
Google News is rolling out a new audio briefing feature on Android, including a dedicated 'Listen' tab with AI-generated news summaries and an audio player, allowing users to listen to news stories with customizable controls, as part of a pilot program to enhance user engagement with AI-powered content.
Google resolved a widespread outage on Friday morning that affected its search engine, news feed, and other products, with over 1,000 user reports of issues. The cause remains unclear, but the glitch impacted Google News, Discover, and other services. The outage follows recent criticism of Google's AI-powered search engine feature, Overviews, and the release of documents about its search algorithm.
Google experienced a worldwide service outage on May 31, 2024, affecting Google News and Google Drive, among other services. Users reported issues accessing these services starting around 8 AM ET. The outage was confirmed by Downdetector and caused significant disruptions. By 2:28 PM ET, Google had resolved the issues, and services began to stabilize.
Google News experienced a global outage affecting millions of users on both desktop and mobile platforms. The issue also impacted Google Discover, which was only showing cached content. Google has since resolved the problem, but the cause remains undisclosed. This incident follows other recent challenges for Google, including a leak of API documentation and issues with its AI Overview feature.
Google is accused of prioritizing AI-generated content over human journalism in its search results, leading to a decline in the quality of information available online. The company has defended its actions, citing narrow search queries and denying any bias towards AI-generated content. However, concerns persist about the impact on credible journalism and the prevalence of SEO-optimized, AI-generated content designed for commercial purposes.
Google emphasizes its focus on the quality of content rather than its production method, as AI-generated duplicates of articles continue to proliferate on Google News. Despite Google's policies against automatically-generated content for ranking purposes, the issue persists, with AI-powered sites copying and posting content from various sources. Google's automated process for adding content to Google News aims to reward original content, but the system is struggling to filter out automatically-generated content. While Google has taken action against some sites stealing content, it continues to test AI-powered search experiences that may further obscure original sources.
Google News has introduced a revamped Following tab that allows users to customize their news sources and topics, resembling a combination of the old Google Reader and the current Google Discover. The tab displays individual cards with three stories each, chosen by ranking algorithms. Users have found the algorithmic curation to be interesting and relevant, increasing their trust in the algorithm. The Following tab provides a concise and glanceable overview of news from selected sources, making it a preferred option for users who want control over their news consumption.
Google News has redesigned its "Following" tab on Android, allowing users to easily find articles related to topics they are interested in. The new customizable Following feed displays topics and publications users have added to their library, with a series of cards at the top of the page. Users can tap on a card to see a feed of related stories. The update is currently rolling out on Google News for Android, with availability on iOS expected later this year.
Google has confirmed an ongoing issue with indexing in Google News that is affecting all publishers, resulting in decreased traffic and visibility. The problem, which started around June 21st, has led to some publishers experiencing a significant drop in Google News visibility, while syndicated Yahoo content has seen a surge in visibility. Google is actively working on identifying the root cause of the issue and providing updates within 24 hours. Recent reports suggest that the situation is gradually improving.
Google is investigating a disruption in Google News indexing, which has caused a decrease in traffic for content publishers. The issue has been ongoing for several weeks, and Google is working to identify the root cause. The Search Relations and Search Engineering teams are collaborating to resolve the problem, and regular updates will be provided. Mitigation measures may be implemented while the investigation is ongoing.
Google has confirmed a bug with indexing content from news publishers and surfacing it in Google News, which may result in a decrease in traffic for affected publishers. The issue is being investigated, and Google is working on fixing it. Publishers who have noticed a drop in traffic from Google News in recent weeks may be impacted by this bug.
Russian authorities blocked access to major news sources and information from the Wagner mercenary group as it pushed toward Moscow on Saturday, adding to the confusion as rumors and misinformation about events flourished. Google News was blocked beginning Friday night by Rostelecom, Russia's largest digital provider, and at least four other major internet service providers, according to the nonprofit group NetBlocks, which monitors internet censorship. Telegram, the messaging, news and social networking platform that is widely popular in Russia, had significant outages in cities including Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as points en route to the capital from the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, which Wagner troops controlled.
Google News for Android has received a Material You redesign, along with tablet and large screen optimizations. The redesign includes a Material You bottom bar with pill-shaped indicators, a navigation rail on the left-side of the screen for tablets, and larger cover images with more text. The app on tablets is most reminiscent of Google TV's revamp. The redesign is currently a server-side rollout and is only available on tablets with version 5.78.