At the hotel Sangallo, Madhav Chinnappa and Laurence Foucault revealed the tools that Google offers journalists
Google News provides journalists with a catalogue of information, allowing them to strengthen and back up their work. The application launched 13 years ago and was created by Krishna Bharat, a news junkie, who wanted to know as much as he possibly could about all areas of the world. Now, Google News is accessible in 30 languages. “It’s a ‘go away’ site,” said Madhav Chinnappa, head of strategic partnerships at Google News. “It sends every user away.”
How does Google News work?
Google News is an aggregator, meaning you can’t influence it. Its inner workings consist of a secret algorithm that perhaps even the Pentagon is not aware of.
Are you working for a local newspaper? In this case, don’t worry – you won’t be competing with other news sources. But if you’re working for a big news organization, the game changes. The aggregator differentiates between ranking and sources.
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it favors the freshness of the news. Try to add some new facts, otherwise you’ll lose the game.
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it prefers novelty over duplicity. Don’t just post a press release. Add some informations, and you will win some points.
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it valorizes local and personal news. Hop on a plane and go where the action is happening.
The geek gene is not vital. Available in many languages, it sums up the website and provides advice and tips. Consider it the main source of information. If you are ever lost, you can try to contact a Google employee (don’t expect an answer, though), or you can use the forum, with a nice community of “geeks” to provide you with answers. Don’t hesitate to vote for the best answer and avoid being a troll.
All publishers can manage their content through the new sitemap, which permits you to make the pages of your website discoverable,and provide metadata about the specific content on your site.
You can rely on webmaster tools. The area gives you data, tools and diagnostics, making your site more “Google-friendly”. For exemple, it will inform you if an article is too long and how to fix it.
Editors’ Picks launched three years ago in Italy. It is useful in article aggregation. It can also be implemented as an RSS fee, making it impossible to miss a story!
Media Tools was launched at the end of 2013. This is the guide to all of Google’s possibilities for journalists and news organizations.
This tool is useful for when you need a specific answer. It also works when you’re looking for an image with a certain color, size or type.
Trends is the ultimate tool for finding out the hot topics. Now you can also subscribe to a newsletter to receive the trends you’re interested in your inbox.
When a tragedy happens, Google searches for information and compiles it for you.
This tool helps you create a personalized map with your own data.
Google Data can be used to find global data that is already online. You can also change the language settings for different results.
Google’s eyewear can be used during difficult and immersive situations. It can also be used in real time, to show to the potential audience exactly what the wearer is seeing.
Elodie Armand @elodarm
Edited by Gretchen Gatzke