Google News and RSS

This from PCWorld.com:

"Google News has added RSS (and Atom) feeds to Google News, letting you snare headlines--from both its overview page and subsections such as Sci/Tech and Entertainment--using your RSS reader of choice.You usually think of an RSS feed as linking back to one particular site, but in the case of Google News's feeds, it's just aggregating stuff of interest--each link goes straight to the originating news source. The Google News filter is silently selecting stories it believes to be of interest, and while it's not perfect (it often takes awhile to notice that a major story is a major story), it's an addictive way to stay informed."

When I first read this, I thought to myself, "meh." I'm with the author of this little article who stated that that he already uses My Yahoo in order to check the latest headlines - it's not fancy, but it works.

I also agree with the author that viewing Google news via RSS takes away from the rich and somewhat nutty way that Google puts together its new sources. It wasn't too long ago (and maybe it still happens, but I haven't seen it in a while) that the Onion was a trusted source.

However, the sweet spot in Google RSS feeds is that it will only give you the leading item in each particular news topic (technology, science, entertainment, etc.). If you'd like to check it out for yourself, visit Google RSS About Feeds page to get you started.

Related:

• Google Quiz: Pop quiz, hotshot.
• RSS Defined: Find out what RSS is and how you can put it to work to drive traffic to your site.