News aggregators have it better today than ever. If you need the information, you hit the Internet and get it. You need no library pass or expensive news service subscription. Features exist, like netvibes.com that organizes RSS feeds or MyYahoo's personalization applications to retrieve information the way the end user wants it. Such services make the job of an online editor or link aggregator an easy one. Google's News Search is one phenomenal resource that doesn't seem to gather the praise it deserves.



Google News starts with a 30-day base from over 4500 news sources. That's a lot of current affairs to choose from, but an aggregator using Google News can alter that list of 4500 periodicals by adding or deleting sources. There is an option, too, to extend the past 30 days longer by dipping into Google archive feature. On a side note, an aggregator is the editor for your website or portal. A famous example would be Drudge of the DrudgeReport. His value is simply to glean through news sources and select what he thinks is news - and few people in the media have as much sway as him. So, it can pay to aggregate well.

Central to the Google News feature is, not surprisingly, the search process through entered keywords. Simply put, this provides amazing results. The aggregator of, say, a sports website need not worry for lack of interesting stories when using Google News. Type in a simple sport and/or angle and voila! Information aplenty to link, rewrite (with sources) or build for story inclusion. I randomly searched "NFL” + “penalty" (a nice cross-section) and was returned with a trove of interesting stories that would be fitting for a sports editor or link aggregator to select from.

Now, my mind was blank before the search, but in conducting the search and scanning the results I noticed one headline that called for a reinstatement of a disgraced running back, Ricky Williams, into the NFL. Williams, a high profile talent, has been banned for drug abuse. And just like that my interest was piqued by a headline (acting as an online sports page aggregator, remember) and when I clicked it, I read a persuasive opinion piece penned by one Dave Meyers of the La Crosse Tribune. Now, on my site I might link the story (http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2007/04/10/sports/00lead.txt), thus amplifying the impact of the article and justifying, in theory, the co-operation of the La Crosse Tribune and Google. Google News allows more people to read Mr. Meyers' product and helps my (theoretical) website build content. This is total Internet utility and a great example of a win-win for all involved.

Google News lets the user change the look of the results page and also allows the user to share customized selections with others by allowing signed-in users to create a unique URL that can be copied and sent to others. This could be very handy when collaborating in projects with off-site partners. Who doesn't wish everything was this easy?