Back in July, Google redesigned the News tab in desktop Search. Looking for current events on mobile is now getting its own revamp with what Google calls “smarter organization” though machine learning and richer article cards.
Currently, Top Stories lists two or so articles followed by a carousel of more stories. Google is now better curating this section, especially when there are several related news events, on mobile Search:
Now, when there are multiple stories related to your search, we’ll also organize the results by story so it’s easier to understand what’s most relevant and you can make a more informed decision on which specific articles to explore.
For example, a general lookup for “NASA news” will list multiple events with each having their own carousel of cards that include a cover image, publication name, headline, and publish time. Some will directly feature notable quotes, related opinion pieces, and other key information. Articles not grouped together will appear under “Also in the news.”
According to Google, this smart Top Stories “structure” allows for more high-quality content that’s not just the most recent, as well as diverse sources. This is in service of bringing “more context and perspective to the day’s news.”
Our research has shown that clustering results into clearly-defined stories is critical in helping people easily navigate the results and identify the best content for their needs.
Behind-the-scenes, this is being powered by “new story-understanding technology to map the people, places, and things involved in a news story, and then draw connections between them.” This grouping leverages machine learning techniques like recently-announced BERT to “examine the related articles and determine where one story ends and another begins.”
Google’s smarter Top Stories carousel is rolling out starting today on mobile. It’s initially available for U.S. English and coming to more languages and locations in the coming months.
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