Exclusive! Scoop! Google lets newsmen flag up 'standout' stories
It's a boost for high quality journalism - but don't put too many stories forward!
Google News in the US will then consider including a "featured" label with the story on its news homepage and in search results, according to an Associated Press report.
There's no guarantee a tagged story will be featured, but "Google's algorithm will factor the tag into its decisions," the company said. David Smydra of Google News announced the new system at the Online News Association conference in Boston at at the weekend. He said, "We can showcase that standout piece of journalism in Google News by putting a 'featured' label in front of it." However, don't push it guys!. If a news organisation puts the 'standout' tag on more than seven stories in a week, the algorithm won't factor it in as much, or may ignore it altogether, says Google. Google also wants news organisations also to highlight strong work by rival providers. "The way we've designed standout is that when it's used both ways -- for calling out their own work and calling out the work of others -- that builds our trust in that source," said Smydra . The new standout feature focusing on high-quality journalism will "give credit where credit is due," said Google.