Google News Showcase is now available on desktop web after launching on mobile

Abner Li | May 24 2021 - 8:23 am PT

Google’s $1 billion licensing program to support publishers and surface new card-based content is now coming to the desktop web. News Showcase will be available on the Google News website after previously being limited to Android and iOS.

The News Showcase panels will appear on the Top Stories homepage below the usual list of headlines. “News sources” that appear here are “suggested for you” and can be managed, while users can scroll to see more. It’s also accessible in the navigation drawer as a dedicated catalog page — news.google.com/showcase:

Here, users can see the latest panels from every participating publisher in their country: both national titles covering issues across the country and throughout the world, and smaller regional and local outlets covering the events closer to the places readers may live and care about.

Lastly, Google will surface a News Showcase section on a participating publisher’s landing page as a new tab. It includes the Rundown (most important issues for a publisher every day) panel and other story panels that provide deeper context for articles. Publications do not have to do any additional work here.

The company also shared that News Showcase is seen by millions of users every day, while it has delivered 10 million clicks per month to full articles. Another stat is that the “Follow” button has been tapped over 460,000 times.

Google News Showcase on the web is currently available in eight countries: UK, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Czechia, and India. It’s already live in Google Discover and the News mobile apps. Meanwhile, an update to the format allows for linked bullet points in cards.