Google has revamped Google News this month, offering a raft of new, localised and personalised news services via its new 'News for you' feature.
Google revealed its latest plans for the future of Google News via its blog, outlining the strategy to offer users news that is better customised to their own personal interests and needs.
Users will now have more control over choosing which sources show up more prominently in their news feeds. Readers will also be able to use the 'Edit personalization" box to specify how much they are interested in Business, Health, Entertainment, Sports or any other subject they care to add.
Google will also create pages devoted to the key news stories and events of the day. Alongside those, users will get news and weather updates tailored to their local region, or even to their specific neighbourhood.
Sharing the news
"There's an old saying that all news is local," notes Kevin Stolt, Software Engineer on Google News. "But all news is personal too—we connect with it in different ways depending on our interests, where we live, what we do and a lot of other factors.
"Today we're revamping the Google News homepage with several changes designed to make the news that you see more relevant to you. We're also trying to better highlight interesting stories you didn't know existed and to make it easier for you to share stories through social networks."
Readers will also be able to share 'story clusters' with others via Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz or Google Reader, simply by selecting the drop-down menu marked by an arrow above each story cluster.
The redesigned Google News homepage is out now in the English-language edition in the U.S., with Google planning "to expand it to all editions in the coming months."
Google has recently been at the centre of rumours that the company plans to launch a new social network called 'Google Me' to take on the might of Facebook.
