Google News gets more personal with desktop redesign

Google News has been awarded a file A new lick of paint for desktop users On its 20th birthday, with a redesign that gives more importance to local news and personalized content.

Users can now customize the topics they are viewing more easily by pressing the blue “Customize” button in the right column (it appears just below Your Choices). They can also add multiple sites to the Local News section by pressing the Settings button to the right of the Local News heading.

In practice, the biggest change is that different categories of news — such as world, business, science, and health — have been moved from the left side of the screen to the menu bar at the top. You can compare the before and after in screenshots of the new design (top) and the old look (below).

Image: google

Google says it has also expanded its “fact-checking” section, which highlights debunking of viral claims from organizations like Full Fact. However, it’s not really that prominent, and it’s hidden in a section that most visitors won’t see at the bottom of the home page.

Overall, I think the redesign of Google News makes it look more like a newspaper’s front page than an aggregated source like an RSS feed (RIP Google Reader). It’s a very small change, but a welcome change.