Google creates Web Elements for easy news feeds
Web publishers without development skills will be able to add news feeds, maps, and other types of Google products to their Web pages with a simple cut-and-paste operation.
Google has made it easier for novice Web publishers to spruce up their sites with feeds of Google's products.
Google Web Elements, set to be unveiled Wednesday at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, is an easy cut-and-paste way to add a Google News feed, for example, to a Web page. The company plans to demonstrate the service later on Wednesday at the conference.
Web publishers have been able to add such feeds to their sites in the past using Google's APIs, said DeWitt Clinton, technical manager of Google's developer relations team. But using Web Elements is a much easier process; if a Web site publisher wants a customized Google News feed, say, they just select the type of feed, type in custom categories, and cut and paste the resulting code into their Web page code.
"We're trying to nail the simplicity story," Clinton said. It's not clear yet whether or not this is something that professional publishers would want to add to their site, or just a tool for individual bloggers or small businesses; Google's main focus in the early going was to make the process as easy to understand as possible, he said.
Google Web Elements was expected to go live here at 9 a.m. PDT Wednesday. Eight feeds are available at first, with more possibly to come over the next several months.