New Google News layout is awful - any suggestion for alternate news aggregator sites?

[MrPurple]

Last edited Fri Aug 18, 2017, 02:47 AM - Edit history (1)

EDIT: THE OLD LAYOUT OF GOOGLE NEWS CAN NOW BE ACCESSED AT THEOLDGNEWS.COM

I've used Google News as my PC homepage since it started in 2004, I think. Last night, they implemented a new layout, which really destroys using the service for me. There was great information density and I could see dozens of stories at a glance across my screen, links to different sources providing the same story.

The new format seems geared toward phones and I can see two stories with TONS of white space on the sides and need to scroll endlessly and still don't find the info easily that was on a single widescreen PC screen before. Are any other Google News users frustrated with this change today? Are there alternate news aggregator sites that you like? I really loved Google News - lots of news at a glance from lots of good sources. But, the update is such a big downgrade that it's likely time to move on to something else.

[MineralMan]

1. I use Google News by searching only.

I search for topics of interest to me. I don't bother with home pages for news stories. There's too much news I don't care about that takes up too much space on any such page.

So, I search for news.

[MrPurple]

4. I like seeing a panoply of breaking global events in one screen shot, click when I want to know more

I've done this with my browser homepages since 9/11. The previous layout of Google News was wonderful. Almost subconsciously, I had a sense of all the current headlines as I went through my day.

[LeftInTX]

16. Have you tried it today? The search function is just as bad.

The first screen looks the same, but then when I hit "view all" it turns into a mess.

I use "view all" because I've already the articles that are highlighted and I like to get more in-depth news.

[MineralMan]

17. No, I haven't, actually. I rarely go beyond the first results page

for news searches. Normally, that page delivers reliable sources I can read.

I'll look at it the next time I search Google News for a subject.

[pnwmom]

25. The new format doesn't work as well for searching, either. n/t

[Brainstormy]

2. well, this won't be helpful

But Huffpost and Comcast suck, too. I'd like to get other suggestions.

[demmiblue]

3. I use Twitter as a news feed. n/t

[leftstreet]

5. Do they still have the format button?

I'm seeing it, but not sure if they're removing it

It's a drop-down at the top next to 'US edition'

Classic
Modern
Compact

[MineralMan]

7. They have a Settings drop down for customization.

It looks very flexible to me. I still don't use a one-page news service as a home page, though.

[MrPurple]

9. The new version might not have been implemented for you yet, I don't have a classic settings choice

[MineralMan]

12. Click the gear. It doesn't offer any "Classic" setting,

but lets you customize what you see in great detail to suit your preferences. Try it. You might like it better, once you've set it up the way you want it.

Yes, I have the new version displayed. Looks like there are dozens of things you can customize.

[melman]

6. Twitter is probably the best

Especially for breaking news, it really can't be beat.

[Thor_MN]

49. Twitter is crap. Slightly more advanced than cavemen grunts.

It isn't a News Aggregator, it's an endless pile of 140 character echos of crap.

The most stupid form of communication ever.

[Alea]

8. Associated Press

[Deb]

37. agree and Reuters "the wire" side of the app

[MrPurple]

10. Thousands of people have complained about this in Google forums

but I guess not many people here are regular users. I may go with a digital Washington Post subscription instead. From my experience, the previous Google News layout was uniquely good for grasping 40 different stories in a well presented snapshot with links any any story to the WaPo, NYT, BBC, Guardian, Fox (if I wanted to assess their spin) articles on the story. It still does that, but I need to scroll and scroll to see what was dense and visible on one screen before.

[pnwmom]

24. I liked the old version for the same reason you did. And I hate the new format. n/t

[dalton99a]

11. It looks like shit

Dumb idea

[MrPurple]

13. Think it's meant to be easier on phones, but stupid not just have 2 separate versions

[lunasun]

14. I am on a phone and looks the same to me . I am in the US

[FigTree]

15. I use

ighome.com. You can tailor it the way you want.

[Chemisse]

29. That's what I use too. I like it. n/t

[leftstreet]

34. +1

Thanks for that suggestion!

[jcmaine72]

40. Thanks for sharing this info. I've never heard of that site before.

I'm going to give this site a shot as my new home page. Thank you!

[LeftInTX]

18. Agree, awful....it is like it is pandering to the "graphics" crowd instead of the "reading" crowd

[MrPurple]

20. I think it's about catering to people who are using tiny phone screens

I could see links to 30-40 stories in a screenshot before, with exceprts from the opening sentences. Now, I can see links to 5 articles on one topic and then I need to scroll. There's tons of complaints in the Google forums, so hopefully they'll provide a tab where you can select the old format. But, probably this is a strategy of focusing on mobile device users more that they've planned for a while and it's here to stay.

[Liberal In Texas]

51. That was my first thought when seeing it.

Catering to phones and pads. Don't see any reason they can't have a "classic" or PC option.

[Blue_true]

19. I use Yahoo. Sometimes they screw it up, but get it straight.

The Yahoo format scrolls well, with main banner stories, and a down list of secondary stories.

But beware. Yahoo sometimes push out changes that are awful, like last week they blew up the main headline scrolling with a change that should have been double checked before being implemented.

[MrPurple]

21. Here's an example of the old layout vs. the new one

[IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[JimGinPA]

22. The New Layout Doesn't Bother Me As Much As The 505 Errors That Keep Killing My Feed...

I guess I don't need to see that many headlines at once, or rather the scrolling doesn't aggravate me too much, as I keep up with news from a few local (city) and a few special (sports, tech etc.) feeds, so I had to do some scrolling anyway. However, several times today it has crashed in the separate tab I have it in.

[pnwmom]

23. I loathe it too. I kept switching away, thinking I had made a mistake. nt

[oberliner]

26. You'll get used to it

It's just that it's new.

[WilliamPlanke]

27. Flipboard gets my vote for news aggregator.

Works seemlessly between mobile and desktop. Highly configurable. Love it!

[LAS14]

28. I was frustrated until I discovered the little dropdown....

....arrow in the lower right that gives me the info I used to see. In my IE that arrow didn't show.... only in Chrome.

[Shandris]

30. It boggles my mind that we don't have scalable code yet that can be written...

...once and deployed across both phones and desktops. Just like about a third of the time I open YouTube it's in 'phone mode' where it is just COMPLETELY disgusting to look at on a desktop (and you can't change it because it demands you 'log in', and Google can fuck right off if it thinks it will ever get a username from me). Every now and then it will even switch between the two when you simply hit Refresh, it's maddening as all hell.

Okay, rant over, I feel better. As for aggregators, I'm sorry...I don't have a better one than 4chan, but you REALLY need a strong stomach to read the things they aggregate (and time to sort out the lies, and the stomach not to get vomitous at their wording, and...).

EDIT TO ADD: AND WHILE I'M AT IT, let me not forget to mention MSNBC's INSISTENCE that all frontpage stories are videos spaced for mobile phones. I know the goal is to dumb us down to the level of livestock, but TRY not to be SO fucking obvious about it, yah?

[area51]

31. Any interest

in NewsIsFree?

[BoulderCountyGuy]

32. Couldn't agree more...

I could not agree more with MrPurple's perspective on the new Google News format - horrible. As far as I can tell, many of the functions I found quite useful are gone. Problems/issues with the new format:

(1) When using a key word to search for news articles on a particular topic, results seem to be universally limited to about 20 articles as a result of the search. Why the limit on the search results, Google? How were those particular 20 articles chosen?

(2) Previously Google News readers/users were able to search for articles using the following time parameters: (a) during the last 24 hours; (b) during the last week; (c) during the last month; (d) custom time parameter search. As far as I can tell, few if any of these time search parameters are any longer available. Why Google?

It appears Google has significantly "dumbed-down" its new Google News format, made it much less useful, I think in nearly every way it is a step backwards. Bad job, Google.

[gopiscrap]

44. welcome to du

[mahatmakanejeeves]

33. I concur. It's awful. NT

[workinclasszero]

35. I don't like it either OP

[a kennedy]

36. I don't use google period........I use DuckDuckGo.com as my search engine......they NEVER track you.

https://duckduckgo.com Love it.

[L. Coyote]

38. DU and dKos

[jcmaine72]

39. Yep, the redesign is awful. I gave it a few days to grow on me. It hasn't.

Consequently, for the first time since 2002 or so, Google News is no longer my home page. I'm not the biggest fan of msn.com, but it'll have to do for now as a substitute.

[blogslut]

41. I'm learning to like it.

I just needed to play around with it some. I'm finding it easier to configure my news sources with this new layout.

[MrPurple]

42. I liked not specifying sources, so I could see what ones I disagree w/ were saying too

And I liked being exposed to random things that I normally wouldn't seek out. But on the old Google News layout, I could scan 20 stories & summaries in one screenshot. Now there's just one or two topics on the screen and then I need to scroll. The Google propaganda says that the new design is less "cluttered", but it wasn't clutter before, it was wonderfully dense with information.

[leftstreet]

43. +1

I figure that's what's wrong with most of Trump's supporters - their only 'news source' is FOX and rightwing radio which is all basically tailored for them.

I agree, I liked the random Google headlines I wouldn't normally seek out

New format suckz!

[marybourg]

45. "Just for You" and DU

Tonite I clicked on "Just for You" (on Google News) for the first time and was interested to find that stories of Jewish interest and anti-Trump stories were all that came up. The only place I indulge in those interests are on DU.

[MrPurple]

47. They know everything you've searched for/read through Google & Youtube

You must have used Google over the years to search for/read articles related to those topics. Google also owns Youtube, but don't know if that's integrated. I just clicked For You and all the stories are about politics and the Patriots.

[marybourg]

48. No. Only DU.

Have searched enormous # of topics on Google, several every day, but only those 2 topics came up.

[csziggy]

46. At the upper left the bars let you toggle the "Main Menu" on and off

And that gets rid of the column to the left side of the screen. Now if they would only let us get rid of the useless right side column with the stupid buttons. I'm sure those buttons would be convenient if I were reading the page on a smart phone - but I am not.m They waste my screen space and force to endlessly scroll.

I resent that they have lots of chances to ask for more on specific subjects but they don't offer the choice to get LESS. In my preferences I marked that I wanted no sports stories, but sure enough there are sports stories the list, especially in the column on the right.

You are right MrPurple - this pretty much destroys the usefullness of Google news.

[ck4829]

50. I've also noticed the quality of the news they use has dropped very recently

I am subscribed to several things I find interesting and the news articles coming in are irrelevant to the subscription.

[theoldgnews]

52. The old Google News layout

the old layout is here: https://www.theoldgnews.com

[MrPurple]

53. Thank you! Switching my homepage now.

[theoldgnews]

54. Your welcome

Could you do an edit on your original post to include the website link, so others can find it easier instead of digging through comments? Thanks!

[MrPurple]

55. Done. Thanks again. Is this provided by Google or has someone developed a program for this?

I'd assume it's from Google, but there should be a settings link on the Google News page for this.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

56. Oh, that's great. Thank you. Like MrPurple, I'm switching my home page to this one. NT

[MrPurple]

58. It was nice having the old Google News layout, but this site stopped working now.

[MrPurple]

57. Bummer, theoldgnews.com is great, but it doesn't give me unlimited Washington Post articles

I love the old Google News layout that you can access through theoldgnews.com. But, after using it for a few days, Washington Post blanks out the articles I try to link to, saying that I'm not a subscriber. When I go in through the actual Google News site, I can still read any Washington Post article that I link to through there.