We asked our participants to provide additional thoughts on Google News:
“Google News operating “separate” from Websearch technology so-to-speak puts the product at a disadvantage. The inability to track News one boxes in organic search results is disappointing and problematic as well.” – Marshall Simmonds
“2011 marks the year that Google News ranking factors will start to merge with select Google web search ranking factors. It won’t be surprising to see a release of something like Panda, only specifically for News.” – Matthew Brown
“Done right, you want to be out of the gate first with a shell story. Start your social engine while you quickly update the story with the hope of crowding out the competition for social shelf space. CTR and general user behavior metrics are factors here. So while you might be first and have a solid social engine, if your content and/or site doesn’t retain users you may find your time at the top to be fleeting. Images (and Video) can sometimes tip the scales for Google News. These rich formats are sought after by users, and therefore are valuable to Google as well. Moving forward, identity, authorship and reputation will likely play a larger role in Google News. In fact, you may find Google testing these algorithmic ideas (for search) through Google News.” – AJ Kohn
“Google News could have a better display in a general search of a topic (real-time really helped with this). GN has a few new factors like social display, but these features don’t show up in universal search. I also wish there was a consistency of how stories are displayed Google News (h1 headlines) vs. titles picked up in universal” – Eleanor Hong
“Brands matter” – Chris Mull