Google News UI gets refreshing facelift; offers new Fact Check block to curb fake news, custom options and more

Search engine giant Google, in a bit to provide clutter-free reading experience, has completely redesigned the company's news display.

Google News' UI looks refreshing, and interestingly, it has adopted Android mobile Google Now-like card design, where it focuses on the publishers' name and the article labels. It has also provided an additional navigation column on the left to sections that you can customise. You can jump quickly to news you enjoy, whether it's standard sections like Sports or Entertainment, or those created by you and powered by your queries, such as 'Cricket World cup' or 'Hollywood', among others.

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There is also an additional navigation tab that helps the user to customise the news based on locality and interests. It off offers the options, 'Headlines,' 'Local' and 'For You.' Upon signing in, the user can personalise the "Local" and "For You" tabs. In "Local," you can track stories from any part of the world. In "For You," users can pinpoint niche interests and create their own mini news feed, whether it's following their favourite team, or news on cool gadgets and gizmos.

Google has also included 'Story' cards, which help readers get different aspects of the top trending story, in the form of 'Highly Cited', 'Opinion', etc.

The most notable aspect of the new Google News UI is the addition of "Fact Checked" block. It offers genuine news content, which has undergone several reviews. Fact Check block is on the right column of "Headlines" that shows the top fact checked articles recently published. However, it is currently available only in the US for now. It is expected to be made available in more regions in the coming days.

Other improvements include a "Full Coverage" page, which lets the user get immersed in the coverage about a story or issue. There is also a new Video block. Google has improved the algorithmic selection for top videos, and highlighted the top video in a story card with better player. While playing a video, more related videos will be available in the player, Google said.

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