What are Google news results? Google news results, also known as the news box, or news block, is a widget that displays current stories relevant to a particular search query.
Let’s say you want to find out what’s behind the strange weather in your region. You head to your computer, turn the machine on and plug “climate change” into your search engine.
Rather than showing various science articles about climate change, its causes, and potential consequences, your search engine comes back with a block entitled “Top Stories.” Within that section are three prominently displayed articles about various aspects of climate change.
You’ve accessed the news results widget, also known as the news box, or news block. This widget displays current stories relevant to a particular search query.
Google news results example
News box content is driven by trending stories. For instance, the above-referenced climate change search query pulls up the following news results.
Or, if you’re a baseball fan, typing “Chicago Cubs” in your search engine gives you the following.
In the above case, the news results are shown beneath a knowledge card about the baseball team. The knowledge card is the first widget on this SERP.
No matter where the news results pop up on the search engine results, the news box offers 10 recent stories about a topic, which are accessible by clicking arrows to the side of the carousel. Also listed on these stories is their original source. You can click on that source to read the story.
Benefits of the news results widget
Features offered by the news box include the following.
Timeliness
The information displayed must have been recently published. Some of the available information can be just minutes old when it hits your desktop or smartphone.
Relevance
The information displayed in a news results widget needs to have direct bearing on the search query. As an aside, “relevance” doesn’t necessarily mean “published by a news source.” Your press release could end up in a news box as long as you have the right information and markup and your topic is relevant to a search query.
Truthful information
You won’t find hoaxes, fake news (aka “deep fakes”) or conspiracy theories in news results. The information comes from sources with a high degree of accuracy.
Readability and originality
Most of the stories listed under news results are relatively short. They also might provide an original take on a standard topic. One example is the article about climate change’s impact on Napa Valley, listed above.
What type of content is used for the news results widget?
Much of the content making up the news results box comes straight from Google News. And Google News finds its information based on computer algorithms. These algorithms focus on what stories, images, and videos are pulled to populate various categories and in what order they’re displayed.
Lest you think the human element is nowhere to be found, publishers and the Google News team are also out there researching stories as well. News results help you understand a particular topic by providing the latest curated stories and information.
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