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New Google News design emphasizes choice

Readers of Google News will have more options for customizing what stories they see on the page in the new design unveiled Wednesday.

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
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Tom Krazit
The new Google News design will be rolling out to U.S. users over the next day or two.
The new Google News design will be rolling out to U.S. users over the next day or two. Google

Google has given Google News a serious makeover, adding more personalization options and organizing everything in a single row of topic headlines.

The company announced the changes Wednesday afternoon, but they have been testing ways to improve the ability to customize the Google News page for a while. "We're also trying to better highlight interesting stories you didn't know existed and to make it easier for you to share stories through social networks," said Kevin Stolt, a Google software engineer, in a blog post.

Over the next day or two, Google News visitors will start seeing a "News for You" section underneath the "Top Stories" section at the top of the page. "News for You" is a user-generated list of topics and news sources, while the "Top Stories" section plays pretty much the same role it does on the current site, highlighting the top three or so major stories being covered by the media.

Google said it also improved the way it allows readers to share stories with the social network of their choice, and will put the "Spotlight" section designed to highlight interesting feature stories in a more prominent place near the top of the page.

The changes are coming first to the English-language version of Google News in the U.S., but will arrive in other countries and languages over the next several months, Google said.