Early in this century, Google News was one of the first services the company came up with after its namesake search engine. And it’s changed remarkably little over the years. But here at Google’s I/O conference, Google just unveiled a massive upgrade intended to keep people a lot more informed than the current version:
- The app will leverage things Google knows about your interests—that you follow politics, like to bike, and live in the Bay Area—to show stories you might care about without you having to ask for them.
- “Newscasts,” which look a little like Twitter Moments, pull together items about a piece of current news.
- “Full Coverage” uses AI to do a deeper dive into an ongoing story such as Hurricane Maria, letting you see articles and video from a variety of perspectives, going back in time.
- Deals with publishers and a feature called “Subscribe With Google” will let you pay for content from within the app.
- Google News is finally shedding its dowdy design in favor of a much slicker, photo-enhanced look based on Google’s Material Design.
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