Google News Turns 8

Google News, one of the earliest signs that news is changing, is turning 8. While the service has been controversial at times and it may even be regarded as a bit outdated, it was one of the first popular and efficient news aggregators and its influence can't be denied.

News, just like pretty much everything else, is going through a rather painful transformation as the web becomes the main way people get their information.

The old guard may not like it and the web may not always get it right, but there's not much to do to change that.

"Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News," Krishna Bharat, founder and engineering head, and Chris Beckmann, product manager, Google News, announced.

"On September 22, 2002, Google News rolled out to all English-language readers, with a dedicated News tab on Google.com," they said.

"Over the years we’ve made thousands of changes to deliver more news to more users—faster, and with enhanced customization, sharing and serendipity," they explained.

"We’ve added video, local news, custom sections, scanned newspaper archives and a redesigned homepage. We’ve grown from 4,000 sources to more than 50,000, and from one English edition to 72 editions in 30 languages," they added.

For the eight birthday, Google listed the biggest stories since News was launched. Most are pretty obvious, from the presidential wins of Bush and Obama, to the death of Michael Jackson.

Google says that the biggest story to date, overall, is Barack Obama's win in the 2008 US presidential race.

The way people consume and their news online is changing, but a lot of people still rely on Google News. A recent revamp of the site got a lot of criticism from heavy users and the team has been making changes trying make the new design work for everyone.