How big is Google’s news net?

How big is Google’s news net?

: Vin Crosbie looked at GoogleNews’ usage of sources and found that though they monitor 7,000 sites, only a few are used often (in the display, I assume, as opposed to the news search). That’s not wildly surprising. But what is surprising is the use of a few oddball sources: It’s why you keep seeing AP stories via China. Vin’s calculations of top sites used include:

Reuters 175 stories 18% of all

New York Times 80 stories 8% of all

Voice of America 67 stories 7% of all

Xinhua 67 stories 7% of all

Bloomberg 61 stories 6% of all

Washington Post 61 stories 6% of all

ABC News 49 stories 5% of all

Boston Globe 26 stories 2% of all

CNN 22 stories 2% of all

San Francisco Chronicle 17 stories 1% of all

CNN International 17 stories 1% of all

Christian Science Monitor 15 stories 1% of all

Toronto Star 13 stories 1% of all

Seattle Post Intelligencer 13 stories 1% of all

United Press International 12 stories 1% of all

By the way, when my son had to find UPI stories for some (very outdated) assignment at school, I sent searching and the only paper in which I could find them anymore was the Washington Times.

What Vin’s numbers also don’t reveal is the use of some really crackpot sources (while ignoring much larger weblogs and other sources).

This is a good subject for more study.