One of Google’s longest Beta-tests… Google News has now graduated from beta status. There is a “suggest news stories” options in the personalized search feature. I wondered if it would ever be non-beta. Somewhere along the line I had read speculation that the holdup was advertising and there was trepidation that targetted ads within Google News would spur a revolt among the news feed providers. A quick look doesn’t seem to show any ads – so that speculation seems to have been a bit off the mark I guess.
Tag: Google News
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The eternal beta…
Slashdot has a story from the Wall Street Journal online about why beta’s last so long. Google News’ beta, Microsoft’s Antispyware beta are both mentioned. This has become a new way of marketing software it seems, beta has gone from being considered pre-release/buggy software to… oooo new shiny software. However, with the beta is the disclaimer of liabilities of polished release software. If something goes wrong, “oh it’s just in beta anyway…”
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Google News feeds politics and free speech
One of the topics I plan to steer clear of most of the time here is politics. I don’t want this site (essentially for my business), to be engulfed with national political, conservative, liberal, etc… debates. It doesn’t fit with the structure I have in mind. However, at the intersection of political debate and technology there is room to touch on the topic. I’ve found an article which brings Google News into this mix.
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