Google will reportedly revamp News with video and speed tweaks
Google News is getting a major refresh, pulling in features from YouTube and the Play Newsstand magazine app to modernize the product, according to Ad Age. Google has been in talks with publishers over the update, which is expected to debut at the I/O developer conference next week.
The revamp will consolidate Google’s various news services — Play Newsstand is likely to close as part of the move, with Google News getting a new app. The rework will add YouTube’s news section and incorporate the AMP technology Google uses to load pages faster on mobile.
Google is ringing the changes as it places more focus on news. You can already subscribe to some publications using your Google account and it’s placing your subscriptions higher in search results. The company is also investing $300 million to combat the menace of fake news, taking measures like refusing to show search results for publishers that mask their country of origin.
All of these efforts, along with the News revamp, point towards Google trying to strengthen its relationships with publishers. News organizations are facing drops in traffic after Facebook adjusted the News Feed to prioritize posts from friends, giving Google more of an opportunity to become a stronger partner for publishers. If Google embraces this chance, new features could usher in a better News experience for all users.
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