BOSTON - Google News, which has long relied on automation to deliver news content from countless providers, has announced a twist in its algorithm: It will now recognize "featured" content among the tens of thousands of stories it delivers every day.
Google announced Saturday that news organizations can now add "standout" metadata tags to stories they're proudest of - like exclusives, scoops and investigative projects - and the U.S. edition of Google News will consider including a "featured" label with the story on its news homepage and in search results.
There's no guarantee a story tagged this way will be featured, Google said.
If a news provider puts the standout tag on more than seven stories in a week, the algorithm won't factor it in as much, or may ignore it entirely, Google said.
And the company urged news organizations to share the love by using a different new tag - as many times as they want - to highlight strong work by other providers.
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The plan to promote featured stories was announced at the Online News Association conference in Boston.
Google News is touting its latest new feature as focusing on high-quality journalism and "giving credit where credit is due," as Google said in its blog.
Of course, with the biggest stories, multiple news organizations will see their own version as the strongest and may find themselves vying for Google's "featured" recognition.
