The buzz is starting on Google's News Service. Google says that it is an operation devoid of human intervention, where automated software determines which headlines get top billing. This editor-less front page will surely raise the hairs on the backs of many traditional journalists.
Leslie Walker, the Washington Post's tech columnist, says she's impressed. Yesterday Scott Rosenberg, Salon.com's Blog monitor extraordinaire, noted some of the early chatter about the service. Some worthwhile criticism comes from Blogster Nick Denton, who says that Google is "no good at picking stories."
I'm interested, too, in how this changes the notion of the front page itself. Now that Web news has become part of my life, I sometimes feel like I can skip the front page of the newspaper (since it simply reruns what I've already read on the Web) and instead I go straight for the Op Ed pieces and features (the unique stuff that wasn't plastered all over CNN.com the day before). Will Google's news service further accelerate these changes in my news reading habits?
12:13:19 PM
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