14 DAY TRIAL // Google News got its first redesign since launch last week and the changes are pretty significant. The layout of the page has been altered dramatically and several features have been changed, removed or replaced. Google focused on a couple of main themes with the redesign, better sharing options and better personalization. But the redesign has not been received well by a portion of the users and they’re pretty vocal in their dislike.
While it’s pretty clear that the critics don’t like the new design, it’s less clear what about it they don’t agree with. Mostly, it seems that Google News users don’t like the new single column news feed and want to go back to the previous, multi-column layout with all of the sections separated. This approach was preferred by users as it gave them a quick overview of the top stories in the sections they were interested in.
With the new design, all stories are listed in order and the sections mixed. The complaint is that this makes the stories harder to scan through, understandable since the user has to scroll down the page to see all of them.
A smaller complaint has to do with the customized news sections and the surfacing of stories based on the user’s interests. This is intended to make the stories retrieved more relevant to the users, but some are saying that it kills the serendipity aspect of the old design.
Google’s support forums are filled with complaints and many are saying that they are looking for alternatives to Google News. Up till now, Google has made it pretty clear that it has no intention to undo the changes or offer an option for the old design.
Massive redesigns like this always tend to attract a number of critics, usually vocal ones. The ones that actually like the changes aren’t going to flood comment sections and forums with praises, so the discussion is usually one-sided. The recent YouTube overhaul, which also introduced a new design, was equally panned by some users. Despite the backlash, Google stuck to its guns and there doesn’t seem to be any measurable dip in YouTube’s audience.
The Google News redesign, which has been in testing for several months, has been the target of criticism from the get go, yet Google carried on and eventually launched it for everyone. Presumably, this was done after a large enough number of testers were pleased with the changes. Unless a significant portion of Google News users suddenly stops visiting the site, Google is unlikely do anything more drastic than small tweaks and adjustments.