Google News has a new look after a redesign of the company's new aggregation site. This major change updates Google News and brings it to the standard of the other Google services. The change also reduces the cluttered look of previous years. Product Manager for Google News, Anand Paka, shared that the redesign was conceptualized to reduce the clutter users see and make this product more manageable for mainstream news consumers.
To accomplish this, the Google team developed a card-based interface for the news stream which included adding tabs to separate local news headlines and the individual news feed. The long snippets of text which were prominent in the previous design have been removed; and the share buttons for Google+, Twitter and Facebook have been replaced by a trendy share button.
The core features have not had many changes, and the tools recently added such as fact checks, video support and real-time coverage remain. However, the team has improved the use of video in Google News and this is fitting since most new stories have video coverage. Paka added that Google users are accustomed to the card interface, therefore, the change should be well-received. Similar to the previous design, users can click the cards to view the entire story as well as videos, other facts and related articles.
The local news tab was added because the team plans to eventually expand this section. Paka further shared that Google News is already working on the next phase and that there will be some A/B tests in the coming months as the team evaluates the progress.