Google: How Google News Works

Google have created a "Blue Booklet" that details how Google News works, including:

There are two parts to the ranking process, Cohen said. First, the human-written algorithms compare the number of instances across the web that a particular news subject is appearing over a given period of time. That process, said Cohen, includes "who's publishing it, how often, what original content is being produced on that, and where is it on the website -- is it above the photo next to the big photo on the page?" Thus at this stage, Google news essentially factors in the news judgement of editors who have decided on story placement and headline and photo size on a web page.

"That is the cluster part of it and then there is the ranking in that cluster of an original source," said Cohen. "What we are trying to get is local sources, trusted sources."

As a story's ages across the web, another key factor figures in how much prominence it is given by Google News, Cohen said -- how frequently it gets "clicked" by Google users. A story which might have begin a few lines down in a subject ranking will start to move up if users ignores its ranking and click on it more frequently than the stories above it. Or a particular news source may be interpreted to be more trusted by users who favor it in their clicking, causing it to rise up up in rankings on that basis.

"If a user bypasses that first source and goes down to the third source, that tells you something about the user's trust in a given story," says Cohen. "The ranking is variable on a story by story basis."