Google News opens a Twitter account

Google News has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and will now be posting links to "top stories" from over 25,000 news sources on the @googlenews Twitter account, according to the Google News Blog. Clicking on a headline takes users directly to the site which published that story.

Google News' 'tweets' also cite the source of the link. So far, the updates seem to be appearing about once an hour and it is unclear how the "top stories" are selected, or which sources they come from. Sources are the most major news outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, CNN, Reuters and the New York Times. Most if not all of the news sources used are likely to have their own Twitter accounts already and users can easily find and follow them, but Google must feel that there is some value to adding its aggregation expertise to the service.  

As conflict between Google and publishers continues, spurred by Google's decision to place ads alongside Google News search results and publishers' moves to fight against misappropriation of their copyrighted content, Google is continuing to improve its news search service, now offering a Timeline as well as the standard search function. The addition of a Twitter account is unlikely to generate copyright controversy as the 'tweets' only include headlines and a link, but how the system chooses its stories may come under scrutiny if publications feel that their articles are being ignored in favour of those of competitors.

Source: Google News Blog