Google, please clean up Google News

Google News is a strange product. On the surface you have some great features and a useful service but when you scratch the surface and use the search box it’s like stepping back in time.

The entire Google News service is built around the fact that an editor has to manually approve every news source before it goes live. So why is the system full of terrible content and press releases?

Google News is a computer-generated news site that aggregates headlines from more than 4,500 English-language news sources worldwide, groups similar stories together and displays them according to each reader’s personalised interests.

Unlike the normal search results where the algorithm is in control Google News could clean up the entire system with probably a weeks work. All they would need to do is search for the top few hundred commercial keywords and look through some of the stories being displayed. The spam content is very obvious and nobody in their right mind would let half of the sites pass a manual review.

Google is basically giving spam sites and people who syndicate press releases a free ride in a product that requires manual review before the sites are allowed in. It makes no sense at all.

Check out the results for SEO and read some of the stories. Is this the sort of great newsworthy content that people from Google actually read?

I see an Indian SEO agency with a press release and a recruitment agency posting job adverts.

If you agree that Google News is full of spam leave a comment below or via Twitter.

BY Patrick Altoft AT 11:12pm ON Wednesday, 21 October 2009

Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Branded3 and has worked in the SEO industry for over 10 years. With experience across some of the worlds largest brands as well as startup businesses Patrick is well known in the industry and speaks regularly at the major SEO conferences and events. Follow Patrick on Twitter or Google+