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The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

GoogleNews or GoogleViews?

6 comments on GoogleNews or GoogleViews?

GoogleNews or GoogleViews?
: GoogleNews’ sources keep getting stranger and stranger — all the while, it still does not include weblogs.

I just did a search on “MoveOn” to find the link to a NYTimes story for a comment on the Hitler commercial (below) and on that list of results at GoogleNews, I found: CounterPunch, GOPUsa, PHXNews, Mens News Daily, NewsMax, RushLimbaugh.com, WorldNet Daily, TownHall.com, CyberCast News, Christian Broadcasting Network, One Thousand Reasons, ChronWatch, Guerilla News Network, Alternet, Muslim WakeUp!, Center for American Progress, Intellectual Conservative, FrontPageMag.

Now clearly, I have nothing against opinion online! Many of these sites are nothing but opinion and have less analysis and balance and news judgment and more of an axe to grind than many a fine weblog.

Google benefits greatly from weblogs; as fear keeps Monsters Inc. powered, links keep Google powered. You’d think they’d include at least the top bloggers. I want that as a reader service: I’d far rather find what Josh Marshall or Andrew Sullivan or Mickey Kaus has to say about this than most of the sites I just listed!

And whether with or without bloggers in the mix, the list of sources is getting rather funky. I’m not saying that shouldn’t be part of a Google news search but I am saying that they often clutter up the results when what I’m looking for is just a quote or a fact or a date, not a tirade.

So here’s a suggestion, Google, for a new service to go alongside GoogleNews:

GoogleViews: a complilation and search of top opinion from editorial pages, weblogs, advocacy sites.

If you like GoogleViews, you can give me a share of stock….

: UPDATE: Dana Blankenhorn calls GoogleNews’ discrimination against any content created by weblog a “scandal.”

6 responses to “GoogleNews or GoogleViews?”

  1. G. Rivera Avatar
    G. Rivera

    Jeff,
    I agree that’s a great idea. And I have a premonition something like this will materialize sooner than you think!
    -GR

  2. Eric Deamer Avatar
    Eric Deamer

    Google News also includes crackpot anti-Semitic conspiracy theory sites such as Jihad Unspun.

  3. Joshua McClain Avatar
    Joshua McClain

    Until just recently, you could also find “stories” from Indymedia, BuzzFlash and Free Republic on Google News as well.
    It’s a great idea, I just wonder who’s pulling the levers, so to speak, on what sources to cull stories from.

  4. B. Karnes Avatar
    B. Karnes

    This is for people who can read and heed:
    http://www.rense.com/general46/warn.html
    Do you think Bush knew before 911 or not?
    I sure do. I think he did. Also check out the
    Samuel Bush website on line and he is grandfather
    to our fantastic (saracasm) President. If you
    look up Bush you will find that Bush sold to the
    Germans while America was at war with Germany,
    that is where much of his money came from, plus
    check out Scripophily.com – The gift of History.
    Frauds, Scandals, Disasters and Bankruptcies.
    Get a spyglass and on that you will see ENRON.
    My goodness, what a surprise? Will wonders
    never cease. I have so much more, but I had a
    stroke then had congestive heart failure. So I
    can’t do any more. Look up Bush under all names
    and you will find out mega stuff, on one that I
    got from the New York Times, he and his Hitlerites
    are getting millions, YES millions from many
    companies, plus Condi Rice. Oh what Americans
    these people are. Now we know what Germany went
    thru with Hitler. First look up on Samuel Bush
    he, was the first I can find. But it shows many
    names to check out after finding him. Betty
    bfkarnes@yahoo.com

  5. CharlesWT Avatar
    CharlesWT

    Jeff, you may have been preempted…
    “Once opinions around the web were somehow standardised, anyone with the bandwidth to run a crawler could have all the reviews it wanted for free. This would allow Google to swiftly add GoogleViews, but could easily kill off Epinions and Dooyoo, et al in an absolute flood of rivals.” A Distributed Product Review Data Standard: Posted by Ammon Johns on Mar 10, 2003 at 12:38 CET:

  6. Josh Narins Avatar
    Josh Narins

    Google is very upfront about their policy, and you should not expect them, in general, to behave like GE if someone asks them a question.
    Most info is on their website. I don’t know which of the sites you listed offends you most (Men’s News Daily certain made my eyeballs pop), but, write Google about it, include a link to 1,2 or 3 really offensive articles, and see if they don’t respond.
    But, Jeff, the war was messed up. Basically, we wanted a pre-emptive war strategy for Iraq before 9/11, then we were pre-empted by 9/11, and then tried to make the old plan fit the new scenario.
    But it doesn’t, and that not only cost a lot of lives, a lot more than Saddam was planning to kill, but it exposes a flank of the military to local, armed resentment.
    Is Iraq really drawing “foreign fighters?” I know we are watching the main border roads, and the military is saying no.