Nearly 20 years after its 2002 debut, Google News received a major redesign for desktop on Wednesday. The company says feedback from readers inspired its new look. The goal was to bring the most important news to the top of the page. That way, readers will see the biggest headlines of the day without having to scroll down the page.
Google News redesign adds customization tools
One of the first changes you should notice is that local news has moved up to the top of the page alongside top stories. You’ll also see a new filter button which will let you add multiple locations to the local news section. After you add a few cities, you can click the buttons for those locations at the top of the section to just see that city’s news.
Google News is more customizable than ever before as well. You can now select which topics you want to see when you head to the Google News site on your desktop computer. In order to add, remove, or reorder topics, find the “Your topics” section and look for the giant blue “Customize” button to the right. There are eight topics to choose from:
- U.S.
- World
- Business
- Technology
- Entertainment
- Sports
- Science
- Health
Once you’ve chosen the topics that interest you most and ordered them appropriately, you can hit “Save & close” to finalize the changes.
Fact-checking will help you find the real story
Google also expanded the Fact Check section in Google News to provide even more context. Beyond the headline, you’ll see the original claim the story in question is making alongside a fact-checked assessment from independent organizations:
This is one of the many ways Google is helping support media literacy. You can also find more information about sources right on Google Search, called About This Result. Next to related Search results, you’ll see three dots that you can tap to learn more about the result and where the information is coming from. With this extra context, you can follow expert recommendations to check the source and see what others say about a topic, helping you make more informed decisions about the sites you may want to visit and what results will be most useful for you.
Finally, Google News is also returning to Spain. Google News hasn’t been available in Spain for almost eight years, but a new copyright law gives Spanish media outlets the freedom to decide how their content is discovered and how to monetize that content.
Google has also created a website to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Google News, which launched in September 2022. The site explores the biggest news stories of the past 20 years in addition to the biggest upgrades Google News has received.
There’s also trivia and a crossword puzzle, in case you need to procrastinate today.
