Google News Timeline Is A Slick Headline Skimmer
Want to track a topic across the web’s news sources from the last few years, the last few months, or since yesterday morning? A new Google Labs tool provides an easy-to-navigate headline timeline.
It’s an intriguing experiment, though not a complete one by any means. Head over to the timeline site, type in a topic and a time frame, and you get a column-by-column breakdown of certain Google News sources’ headlines on the topic. The Timeline can also pull from specific news sources and, in a clever move, dated Wikipedia entries, so you could browse the month-by-month happenings of 1897, if that’s how your lunch break goes.
Many major news sources aren’t included yet, and the default Time Magazine covers seem a little unncessary—as much as we like to see Kate Winslet in the morning, she has little to do with Google’s Android phone. Still, it’s an interesting and perhaps mind-orienting view of the news. What kind of timeline tools would you like to have on hand when you’re doing research?
Google News Blog: Introducing Google News Timeline [Official Google News Blog]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
I found one of these skimmers once, so I went in to the bank to tell them about it, they told me to go to the police. So I went to the police and they told me to go to the bank!
Oh wait, wrong kind of skimmer...
Mykie Gunderson
I like it. It's an easy way to view the major news stories at once. I especially like the way the Timeline treats video, embedding it in the page rather than linking to it. I sort of wish it could do the same for all news stories.
forpeterssake
Google... Google... Google... The internet is fully dominated by the Google guys. Though I appreciate their work and technology.. I still doubt where this total dependency on a single service provider(for everything) is gonna lead to...
kichilee
This is pretty interesting... I like method of displaying these kinds of news items side by side to kind of paint the picture of events as they unfold. It is pretty good for visual learners to use. I can't wait to see what happens as more wources are added, though hopefully that won't crowd the results.
Holy crap, I almost forgot there was news outside of what I read online! Thanks for finally getting rid of that for me Google.
@kichilee: I like Google products, so I use them. If someone else makes better products, I will use those.
@Mykie Gunderson: After reading that skimmer article that was my first thought on the title too.
@Mykie Gunderson: After reading that skimmer article that was my first thought on the title too.