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September 24, 2002 — 2 PM

News++

In a nod to computer geeks everywhere, the venerable search engine provider Google has created a news web site generated by computer algorithms.

Like many of today’s sad newspapers, Google won’t be involved in writing the news, but rather will cull articles from the thousands of sources elsewhere on the Web. The difference is that no human editors will help select these news items. Instead, they will be selected by technology similar to the search engine. That is, what is popular on the Web will be prominent on Google News.

From first glance, the site seems to offer a broad and varied glance at world affairs. The somewhat chaotic collection of links forces you to read news from different sources, an idea that appeals to me and every journalism professor under the ivory tower’s shadow.

One source of news is often tilted in a particular direction. As are one country’s sources of news. Read American news all the time and you’ll have an American perspective. As I write this, the top stores on Google news come from the US, Australia, Israel, India, Ireland and even the Islamic Republic News Agency. How’s that for getting a second opinion?

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Previously: Indie Rock Talk

Subsequently: Autumn Rhythms

September 2002
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