Comments on: Look Out Topix - Google Launches Localized News Service

By: Thom

Thom — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:21:13 +0000

Jenkins - Topix was purchased by a consortium of newspapers at a $64M valuation last year. Hardly the deadpool. Check your facts before throwing around comments like that.

By: Jenkins

Jenkins — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 01:07:55 +0000

Let’s be real, Duncan. Topix joined the deadpool a long time ago. Their site/strategy isn’t working and their founder even admitted as much way back when. Rick Skrenta left a while ago. They are doing NOTHING!

By: Thom Mullen

Thom Mullen — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 22:14:57 +0000

I think this move by Google is a bigger threat to local newspapers than it is to Topix or the other hyperlocal start-ups. Google is going to start eating newspaper’s bread and butter - which is local news and advertising - unless the traditional media get a local strategy fast. The big newspaper chains don’t seem to have either the vision or the technical know-how to create a viable local product. What they do have is content and money. It’s time for the newspaper chains to wake up and buy some of these hyperlocal start-ups (Topix is already spoken for, but not the others). This would at least give the newspapers a fighting chance against the great Google monster.

By: Newt

Newt — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:59:40 +0000

How is this news? As has been mentioned, Topix has been doing this since 2004, using tens of thousands of sources. A quick examination shows Topix is not just looking at a source’s location or the byline. Me thinks google’s ego is a bit bruised after it’s stock tanked last week, and they’re trying to pull accolades out of thin air.

By: rubu

rubu — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:30:31 +0000

In recently comparing a number of “hyper-local” news aggregators, they are all lacking in one way or another.

By: MikeT

MikeT — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:03:51 +0000

@25: cause it’s cheaper to crush’em than “negotiate” with someone that small.

By: john

john — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:42:19 +0000

google’s looking more and more like microsoft
why couldn’t they just purchase topix instead of crushing them?

By: S. Beaumont

S. Beaumont — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:00:42 +0000

I’m sure that if Google wanted to compete with Topix they could do so really well, but I don’t see how simply adding local headlines to their news page at all compares to creating a portal for valuable and relevant local news.

In recently comparing a number of “hyper-local” news aggregators, they are all lacking in one way or another. Those that exclude the human editing factor offer very little value if you have a local news source with a decent website, and even those with human editors still seem to do a poor job of emphasizing the stories that are of particular interest to local citizens.

Also lacking in many of the aggregators are the inclusion of local publishers, mainly blogs. IMHO, excluding this type of content puts many of these sites into a category of “great technology but poor execution.” Being able to extract local content from a million different sources and display it in a million different ways is only valuable if it both makes the content easier to access and digest and also understands what is important and what is just fluff.

A final thought, even after it’s front-end update I still think Topix is a nightmare to navigate and not that easy on the eyes.

I wrote about a number of these types of sites recently while trying to find a way a better way to scan my local headlines: http://raleighfreepress.com/20.....n-the-web/

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:45:43 +0000

Looks like Google News only localizes the news down to the city level. I typed in my local zip code and got news from all of San Francisco, which is not useful for me. As others have mentioned, sites like Topix, YourStreet and EveryBlock get down to the zip code and even neighborhood level. I think that’s a key distinction. While Google provides local news, these other sites provide hyperlocal news.

By: Joe Smith

Joe Smith — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:42:01 +0000

Although I love Topix, I’ll be glad to see what Google News can pull off.

By: Blake

Blake — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:38:53 +0000

@ Wayne #20

Fair points — Topix is built out to support the neighborhood-level citizen journalism you’re suggesting:
(e.g. Tribeca, Greenwich Village, Gramercy Park, etc.)

The promotion you mention, however, is tricky in towns like NY that are over-saturated with local media. Perhaps “build-it-and-they-will-come” meets less signal/noise in small town America?

By: Keith Thompson

Keith Thompson — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:24:54 +0000

@ J #18

Don’t forget about http://www.yourstreet.com that Erick Schonfeld blogged in November 2007. They use a combo of their own algorithms with those from MetaCarta to geotag news content on the fly.

By: Wayne Mulligan

Wayne Mulligan — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:21:17 +0000

@Blake #16 - Totally, they’re getting there. But I’m talking about even more local than that. You start promoting citizen journalism and you can have people writing about what happens within 4 square blocks of their home.

If there was a pothole problem on my street I doubt the guy 8 blocks over would care, but the 100 (or in my case in Manhattan, 1000) or so people who lived right near me would certainly care. Who can compete with that level of personalization?

-Wayne

By: william

william — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:16:44 +0000

are local content owners paid by google for access to their content ?
are there ads in the local news section ?
if there are ads does google give any ad revenue to the local content provider ?
can a local content provider opt out of googles archives ?

By: J

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:00:47 +0000

I’ll be watching http://www.everyblock.com closely — that’s a fascinating hyperlocal site..

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:43:44 +0000

@stever

You’re right, Topix does try and do this as well. It’s just that in my experience I find false positives in my local news on Topix. Not sure if Google is any better - but overall I think this is a good direction for both companies and a much more significant technology improvement than just adding a local news module to Google News, which was my point to begin with. Apologies if I’ve touched any nerves of Topix fans.

By: Blake

Blake — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:43:41 +0000

@ Wayne #4
While it’s not as prevalent in the big metro neighborhoods yet, hyper-local activity is alive and well on Topix in towns where there is little or no news coverage from traditional print/on-line media.

A quick scan of locales on the latest forum threads on Topix shows a lot of activity in towns like Plainfield IL, Burkesville KY, and Seymour TN. Drop in and see what they’re talking about — I think this is about as “local” as you can get.

By: stever

stever — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:29:35 +0000

#13 is wrong. topix doesn’t just use the source location to determine where a story is referring to. If that were the case, how would they classify stories from blogs, how would they know a story was about a particular person or sports team (thiings they also classify articles to)? I think you have them confused with Yahoo. Also, topix has about 50,000 sources they get news from. google still claims to only have 4500.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:16:43 +0000

Oddly though, you can’t search local news.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:11:44 +0000

I think you missed the biggest part of the announcement - the ability to analyze the text of any given story and understand the location it’s discussing. Most local news sites - Topix included - use the sources location (e.g. SFGate) or the byline to determine the location. I believe Google is saying it’s able to read all sources and articles and determine the locale being discussed in the article and include that in your locale module. If they’re able to do it with accuracy, I would say this is an important step in creating the best local news offering.

By: steve

steve — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:37:18 +0000

1) #9 gets it exactly right. have you noticed how active the forums are on Topix? obvioulsly, anytime google is your competitor it is serious, but Topix is much more than a local news feed.

2) 6.2 million?! that is freakin huge for a company no one in the valley pays much attention too.

By: AdvertiseSpace

AdvertiseSpace — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:32:15 +0000

Certainly not a new feature… it’s been on Google news for a long time.

By: Logan

Logan — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:30:29 +0000

It was inevitable that Google would try to make the addition to their news network.

By: Webside Ventures

Webside Ventures — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:15:01 +0000

I agree, the Google News interface is pretty weak. At least Topix has them beat with that…for now. Also, Topix is more community-oriented with their forums and polls.

By: Howard Owens

Howard Owens — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:57:03 +0000

You just discovered this?

I’ve had a local news feed on my Google News page for at least more than 1 year.

This is nothing new.