Tag: google news

Categories
Mobile Syrup

PM ‘surprised’ by Google’s test to block news access for some Canadians

June 11, 2019, Brazil. In this photo illustration the Google News logo is displayed on a smartphone.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking aim at Google for limiting some Canadians’ access to news content. 

“It really surprises me that Google has decided that [it] would rather prevent Canadians from accessing news than actually paying journalists for the work they do,” Trudeau said at a news conference last week. “I think that’s a terrible mistake and I know Canadians expect journalists to be well paid for the work they do.”

Google’s move is a possible response to Bill C-18. Known as the Online News Act, the bill will make platforms, including Google, pay news sites for publishing their content. The company told The Canadian Press the test only impacts four percent of Canadians and focuses on the search engine and Google Discover on Android.

Google further defended its actions, stating it conducts thousands of tests each year.

“We’ve been fully transparent about our concern that C-18 is overly broad and, if unchanged, could impact products Canadians use and rely on every day,” a Google spokesperson told Cartt.ca. “We remain committed to supporting a sustainable future for news in Canada and offering solutions that fix Bill C-18.”

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: The Canadian Press Via: Cartt.ca 

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google News for desktop gets refreshed, newspaper-like design

June 11, 2019, Brazil. In this photo illustration the Google News logo is displayed on a smartphone.

Google News for desktop got a sleek new look and a couple of new features.

The search giant detailed the update in a blog post on June 22nd, complete with pictures of what’s new. When you first go to Google News on the web, you may see a prompt asking if you’d like to try the new look.

First up, the new design moves the various categories, like ‘For You’ and ‘Tech,’ from the sidebar to a new top navigation bar. Next, the ‘Home’ segment now features ‘Your briefing’ with news tailored to you. This includes ‘Top stories,’ including ‘Full Coverage’ to bring multiple articles about a topic together.

There’s also a new ‘Local news’ section that shows top stories from specific areas, such as Toronto. Users can freely add regions to this section and cycle through them by clicking the different buttons.

Below that is ‘Your topics,’ which features stories in various categories like ‘World,’ ‘Business,’ ‘Tech,’ and more. This section is also customizable, letting users pick and choose topics to feature.

Image credit: Google

Overall, the new look feels much less like a feed of stories and more like a digital newspaper with various sections focused on different stories and topics.

Beyond the change to how Google News looks, Google also detailed in its blog that it expanded the ‘Fact Check’ section. Fact Check highlights the debunking of viral claims from organizations like ‘Full Fact.’ However, The Verge notes that Fact Check remains hidden at the bottom of the page (I couldn’t even find it on my Google News page).

If you’re curious to learn more about the new Google News website, you can check out Google’s blog post here.

Header image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Google Via: The Verge

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google’s shows off Material You Google News and Calendar widgets

Google has announced that its new Android 12 widgets have been developed with ‘Material You’ in mind. While the tech giant’s blog post specifically mentions a new Google Fi widget (Fi isn’t available in Canada), there are several other new widgets designs.

For example, there’s a new Calendar schedule and a new Google News widget. The redesigned Calendar widget adopts a more modern look with the date in the top left corner and the addition of a button in the top-right corner.

The News widget, on the other hand, has been redesigned with a large pill up top, with the publication and corresponding headline sitting below. Additionally, the new Gmail widget features a large ‘new email’ button in the top-right corner.

What’s cool is that some of Google’s renders of the updated widgets show Android 12L running on a tablet. The tech giant recently announced Android 12L, a new version of its mobile OS designed for larger screens, including tablets, foldables and devices that run Chrome OS.

You can learn more about it, Android 12L here.

Source: Google Store