Google News Reviews

May 30 Update. After many months I decided to try Google News again. Still the same huge distracting graphics. Still the limited feeds that lean far left. So many other reviewers say the same thing yet the amateurish graphics dominate still. Deleting this again. Not worth my time in this format. I’ll try again with high hopes in six months or so. I want so much to like GoogleNews!

The new Google News is just plain horrible. The amateurish look is something a high school kid would create, full of big pictures and missing the ability to quickly scroll through headlines to find articles of interest without those glaring pictures distracting you until you just give up. Gone is the ability to use keywords of your choice to create a news tab, you can only choose from their limited lists. Google News now has the look of those webpages that are full of sensational gossip articles rather than raw news. Please bring back the old version.

The new version of GoogleNews is an enormous dissappointment. It now serves me huge swaths of visual (and oh great, moving) panels of news that are hardly relevant to me are difficult and sometimes obnoxious to scan. I don’t even understand how to train the algorithm to do a better job, because the only customization I can find when, for instance, I am served sensationalized local news stories picked up by the networks, is to eliminate the entire network as a news source, which is absurd. My old customizations are gone. This has gone from a smart, fast way to absorb a lot of information to a dumb, flashy slog which I continue to open out of habit but am now abandoning. It looks better and more immersive, but contains significantly less substance and value. Also, I hope Google is getting a cut of all the paywalls GoogleNews crashes you into now. No idea how this could come from a company that theoretically knows more about my web and news habits, whether I like it or not, than any other.

This new format makes you wade through multiple versions of the same news story. In the older format, you could choose to look at expanded coverage if you wanted to. This is just tedious scrolling—and fewer actual stories.

Am I missing a way to collapse the coverage to one report for each news story? —with the option to look at other coverage if I chose to do so? I couldn’t see any way to collapse these repetitious listing. It should be up to the user to customize how the articles are presented. I loved the old Google news. This is dumb.

One more thing: when I look at the 69,000+ reviews, I see that the average rating is 4.5 stars. Yet, when I scroll through the recent reviews, at least half, maybe more, give it very few stars. Are the 69K reviews including your past versions of Google News which was much better? Something’s wrong here...

And one additional note: today I clicked on a story from the WSJ, but was unable to read it because I don’t have a WSJ subscription. It would make sense to tell users “subscription required to read article” before sending them on a wasted digital trip. Or better yet, don’t include links to articles that the general public can’t access. I have to agree with other reviewers that this is a form of click bait that benefits the publishers of the WSJ, not the dupes on Google News whose time is wasted.

The improvements are great. I had deleted the previous version because it was unreliable - some features would just randomly not work. Though the new version doesn’t seem to have that issue...

I found myself waiting up to 30 seconds (or more) for an article to come up after I’d clicked on it. This is on a new phone, with the latest OS, often using WiFi at home. I tried with no other apps running - same thing. I’m surprised that no one else seems to mind the lag. Sometimes I only have 2 or 3 minutes to check the news. If I want to review more than 3 articles, It’s likely I’ll spend most of that time just standing there, staring at a processing icon. I don’t know about everyone else’s news reviewing habits, but to me, an app with this much lag time between articles is simply not useful. I’m better served using that time on email and waiting to do my news surfing on a computer. Or just using another app.

The Apple news app does not have this problem at all. If the speeds were the same, I’d prefer the Google news app; content and customization features are better. However, as is, I just can’t justify making the switch, as much as I’d like to - can’t afford the downtime. I’ll check it out again in another 6 months or so.

This new version is pretty, but feels more like infotainment eye candy than a news portal.

I used to go to the old Google news to quickly scan top stories, view a few alternative headlines to get a sense of different media perspectives, and then dive into stories of interest. It was usually easy to figure out which story was text versus only video so I could choose which to view.

This new version of Google News is not designed for any of that. Instead, it’s a screen with giant quasi-animated images with moving titling that snare my attention even though the story has no interest to me. It’s distracting and the scrolling text makes me wonder whose editorial opinion I’m seeing, where the old summaries didn’t. It also takes longer to scan through than the old summaries. I can only see two or three stories at a time so have to scroll forever for even a small sample. It now starts in the Favorites section, which lists a weird combination of stories, many of which I do not find interesting but I don’t see an easy way to curate. Further, the fact that it automatically logs in with whatever account it finds, even on a shared device where a few of us have different gmail accounts, is annoying.

Whatever they use for algorithms does not work, which is odd because I thought google perfected those like 20 years ago. But content topics I don’t want to see still show up, specific articles I don’t want to see still hound me within a few hours of specifically asking not to see it. Often picture don’t align to what the article is about “Suzy seen out wearing a new purple skirt” is attached to a picture of Phil wearing a grey suit with no picture of Suzy in sight! A lot of articles “aren’t there”. I see something interesting I want to read, I click it, and it’s like less than 2 sentences from what seems like a good article. I don’t get it… then I go to my browser to try and find the mystery article from the content provider and find nothing. Finally the errors! Oh the errors! They make me crazy! I used to not have the problem but maybe within the last month I would say about 1/4 of the content I try to read quickly changes to say “error displaying content”. So annoying!

Google, are you listening? We all came to love your services for their simplicity and focus. What was wrong with the Google News app which I’ve loved for years? Why are you dumping its simplicity for this over-engineered under-thought product? More and more you are rolling out offerings which feel more like products of Apple or Facebook. If I wanted dumbed-down, bloated apps that make decisions for me I would not be coming to Google for a solution. Why does GoogleNews not have a dark or night mode? Why are the articles with their pics so large I can only sew a couple or a few on my phone at a time —how hard would it be to add a menu option for a condensed headlines view? If I needed a Apple news app view, I would use the Apple News app. This is Google Reader all over again —killing off your most-beloved products in leu of something that integrates features your fan base don’t care about while dumping those that do. It would not be hard to add a traditional or classic view to GoogleNews for those users who prefer the layout they’ve been using for years with the prior Google News app. I just deleted GoogleNews, and I’m not returning to it until you at least provide a sensible, condensed view free of clutter and massive article photos.

After getting sick of Apple New and it’s “curated” content and weird organization scheme I’ve been giving Gnews another look. Including local news is a neat feature, but doesn’t work when you present yesterday’s weather and traffic. The Thumbs Up/Down is a nice idea, but I don’t really see much change in my content tbh. Some of the content served up is a head scratcher - articles on the opposite end of the political spectrum or things that have some relation to my location, but not really to my actual interests. My biggest complaint is the repetitive content and the glut of two bit and garbage “news” outlets and blogs. I don’t need 10 articles telling me the same thing over and over and over again. Clean up your feed, focus on legit blogs and outlets, adjust to user feedback more quickly, remove irrelevant articles (old sales, weather & traffic), and GoogleNews will be a winner.

Original review from years ago: This replaced Google Currents, and has been a disappointing experience. Currents was customizable in terms of content selection and was a minimalist reader for my chosen content. This new version puts emphasis on pay walled sites and serves up preconfigured sections (like a analog newspaper). They also removed the nifty drag gesture for minimizing the current selected article.

The range of sources is nice but many stories lead to paywalls and really hinder what stories I read. Also, if I click on a certain kind of story just for the hell of it, the algorithm goes hog wild and pesters me for days or weeks to the point that I’m less inclined to just click around on a whim. Or to click on an article whose bias I do not share but want to read against the grain. Just because I click on something does not mean I support it or detest it either. There are more subtle gradations of choice-making that the feed seems to not pick up on. How could it? I have no idea, that’s Google’s job. Lastly, it would be nice if one could put in a block on certain things - terms, names - that one is not interested in at all like Kim Kardashian. I’m sure she’s nice but I really just don’t care and do not need to be reminded anymore about how much I do not care.

Updated review Nov. 2020:
I have been able to customize so my preferred sources are more likely to appear first, but when I click on “Full Coverage”, I still see mostly stories from far-right garbage “news” sites. Guess if you pay them the $$$, your content gets on no matter if it’s totally false.
To Google’s credit, they do have more stories from local news sources; that’s important for stories in specific cities and states. So I still give it 3 stars - useful to a point.
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Original review:
I’m disappointed with this new iteration of Google News. It seems more focused on clickbait and less on topics I’m really interested in. And after carefully curating my news feed in the old version, it seems I’m back at square one and have to recreate my preferences. The old version is no longer available-a week or so ago, it deleted all my preferences, though it still showed news, so I reluctantly deleted it. As others have commented, I wish I could select my preferred and NOT preferred sources, but Google hasn’t allowed that for some time. I just ignore the stories from “Faux News”, though I wish there was a “thumbs down” or “show less” option to fine tune my stories. Ah well. Google is less interested in sharing information these days and more in selling ads. I have two main news feed apps and I just scroll both and hope for the best!

GoogleNews itself is stable, and i prefer whatever algorithms are in place to feed me what i'm actually interested in, and i ESPECIALLY like being given a list of news articles that i can, like... read. for free. without being badgered to pay to read half of what i'm being presented with.

but all the free news in the world is worthless if the page spits out an error halfway through the article. i thought maybe it was just a mercury news thing, but it's doing it with articles from other sources as well. i tried babying it, letting everything fully load and scrolling very slowly, but even if that worked (which it doesn't), it's 2021, i shouldn't have to do this. i reasonably expect a google app to be robust enough to handle SCROLLING.

While I use it, Google News is just OK. Comes across almost as amateurish in appearance and functionality. Its clunky interface is annoying, often selected artwork doesn’t match stories, graphic quality substandard (thumbnail quality), the editorial staff appears to represents unfocused efforts, much of the published substance and quality of articles are centered around celebrities and dumpster fires... Article layouts and loading are painfully slow, often leading to nothing, once arriving at actual article one typically finds them extremely and overly saturated with ads, making loading simply crawl; so much so I sometimes dread using app. It apparently consumes significant bandwidth and data with its overtly ad placements and erratic graphical interface, while half the time graphics don’t even load.... We should be given the ability to block uninterested content and dial in more relative articles.

You all need to make sure that you are able to fit in as many news sources from around the world as you could do that in this way, all users who actually use this type of app in general will always be able to see and hear about whatever types of news that they all would ever like to hear about from any parts of the planet in general. Lastly, you all need to make sure that you are able to post up photos, videos as well as any other forms of media in general that would actually be able to explain how all of these types of news sources work, what parts of the planet that they all are ever broadcasted from and so on and so forth. All of these forms of media should always be translated into as many different worldwide foreign languages as possible.

I spend time with Google News every day and it’s a great app in terms of amalgamating lots of sources on multiple topics. My only complaint is the navel-gazing algorithm. It seems to base my feed off of (1) news I’m reading and (2) my search history. I end up in recursive news spirals where (for example) I look up a Glee cast list one night while watching Netflix, am fed an article about Naya Rivera the next day, and from then on get 2-3 Naya Rivera articles every day. It’s as if that single seed had a very outsized influence on my news feed. Similarly I clicked on Ask Amy once and now I get Ask Amy AND Miss Manners multiple instances in my feed. Wish I could choose “show less of this” or something to tune the algorithm.

Google News is far better than Apple’s news app. First and foremost, Google’s has a more natural scrolling feel (like Safari or other browsers), while Apple’s is overly sensitive in comparison (a slight scroll sends me halfway down an article). I also like Google’s rate of updates throughout the day and the customizability their app provides (not as good as it used to be however). I’m able to block news providers as a whole on Google (like when random British tabloids of ill repute kept showing up, I was easily able to block their content). Wish Google supported comments within GoogleNews like it used to (now have to navigate into the browser to view/reply). Also, the ability within GoogleNews to choose to view articles in Safari is now more limited. I now have to copy paste the articles into Safari instead of just clicking “open in Safari.”

This is honestly my favorite way to get my news now. Not only does it have a beautiful user interface, but it aggregates so much useful information together for you that just saves you time. For example if there's a big national story, many similar stories from various news organizations are aggregated together, which is nice because you get all the perspectives from Fox News to CNN. I also love how it's automatically personalized. Google, in my opinion does a great job of using the data they already have on you, while also giving you the option to personalize even more if you prefer. Great app, would highly recommend!

This is my daily read, it continuously learns and gets better at picking relevant news that one cares about. I monitor several overseas news sources such as Aljazeera and really appreciate that they are available. A couple of improvements would make it even better. One would be to remove annoying news sites that require subscriptions even though they are not marked as such. NPR, San Jose Mercury, Santa Cruz Sentinel are examples. The other is to remove the irrelevant or not credible news sites that usually have a very small print and barely legible unrecognizable logos and present regurgitated clickbait news, several examples of this are in the physics and science categories.

I switched from the CNN app and Twitter to get my news through here. I like the new “For You” tab. The interface is a lot cleaner and quicker if you just want curated news. I like that you can tap headlines and see latest news. It’s more national focused, while I have the curated one suited to my interests and local stuff. It’s a really nice way to see the news without other people’s opinions in the way. The new app is a lot cleaner and easier to use. As a student taking advanced classes it’s important for me to keep up with news and in general keep up with the news. The news has become a very important thing in my generation now. I think it’s important to know where you are getting your news from and GoogleNews does it right. It’s not just one source it’s many so you gain perspective.

For example, options to filter out unwanted content fail. Personal preference is paramount. If I cannot customize my experience, I find it very difficult to continue using GoogleNews . Google should know me better by now. I provide enough feedback through GoogleNews for a proper algorithm, but it is like no matter how many times I tell Google NO about something, they tend to come back with a YES response, which is quite argumentative, rude and provocative. If I say I do not want to see a source, Google does nothing about it, other than gather data on my preferences. Gathering preference data and not implementing it to accommodate preference feels like being swindled. I gave you my preference, but instead of RESPECTING my preference, I am constantly DISRESPECTED every time Google ignores my preference data. A data-harvesting algorithm is useless if you drive users away with BAD DESIGN.

I love to read the news, and do so almost every day. You always get bogged down, however, with certain organizations taking certain political stances, or you’re unable to get several perspectives. However, Google News solves all of that.

I’ve gone from using specific news source apps, to apple news, and now to Google News. It has one of the most user friendly UIs I have ever worked with, whilst providing an awesome experience. You can customize which news sources you’d like to see more of, but Google News will always give you a huge range of coverage.

Not only does it make reading the news easier, but it also makes it easier to get several perspectives on any given story. One of my most used apps, can’t recommend a better News Application than Google News.

more recently Ive noticed the extreme left news articles non stop. Completely one sided. And then the jimmy Kimmel bashes trump skits...you know the guy famous from the man show...the show that was about everything that he now makes fun of republicans for...(hypocritical much) it’s honestly disturbing how 1 dimensional the news has gotten. I’d like 1 news source that’s actually open minded and not pushing their companies views or agendas. I’ve hit the do not show or fewer stories option and literally have had that very same article pop up 10 more times. We get it google you’re left. Cool I don’t care I also don’t care about what some celebrity ate and the fact I have to ignore 10 of the same articles only to have them reappear is irritating. At 1st I thought google news was better then apple news...now I think they’re both on the same level of junk.

The simple desktop version of news was wonderful. It was customized based on my personal preference and easy to read the news that mattered to me. Articles were arranged by the my chosen topics as well as common topics such as technology, national, local, sports, etc. GoogleNews makes it difficult to find articles on the topics that matter to me. While the old desktop news page would update daily, I find the same news articles suggested for me over several days, even after reading the article. I understand the aesthetic choices for GoogleNews , but sometimes we just want things to be simple and easy to find. The desktop was closer to the ease of finding news articles in a newspaper where GoogleNews is more scroll and hope I find an article that interests me.

The "Fact Check" section is complete garbage. Please make it configurable, so I can block that section. Take a look at today's attempt to "fact check" Biden stories. You have an entire section of news for proper presentation of information. This one makes things worse. After reading the "Fact Check" section a few times with its "clever" reversal of the statement and the claim it is confusing, questionably correct, and a waste of time. MAKE IT CONFIGURABLE.