Google News is finally fully baked and out of beta with new features to recommend headlines and the most read stories of the day.Google Inc. says it has added more personalization facets to Google News, a news feature struggling to match the soaring popularity of competitive offerings.
As of Tuesday, Google News automatically lists recommended reading. The news stories are chosen based on Google's interpretation of someone's news preferences based on their previous sessions.
There's also a listing of the top news stories of the moment, which has become standard fare at other online news outlets.
Before seeing any of the new features, Google users must first sign up for the company's free Personalized Search service.
Read more here about other Google News updates.
The changes are to help Google News latch onto the growing numbers of general interest and professional consumers of online news products.
While still predominantly an Internet search engine, Google News is an early example of how Google is now a one-stop shop for scads of free, advertising-supported Internet services.
By expanding, the firm is taking on other Internet portals, chief among them Yahoo Inc., the Web's most popular destination, and America Online.
Yahoo News and AOL News are usually among the elite news sites, rivaling even segment leader MSNBC. Meanwhile, Google News falls well below the top tier.
Read more here about Yahoo's efforts to improve its features.
Personalizing news is one way that Google and other Internet interests have been turning the traditional newspaper and TV news industry on its collective head.
News consumers no longer need to wait to get their news. Instead, the Internet makes it possible to take more control over when and how to get information about current events.
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