YouTube announces new features to improve its news experience

Lots of people turn to YouTube for most, if not all, of their video consumption. That includes videos related to news events, which is why Google has announced an effort to help users find quality, authoritative videos on news.

In the coming weeks, Google will begin showing snippets of news articles in the search results for breaking news events, complete with a link to the full article. This will appear at the top of the search results and will include a reminder that breaking news can rapidly change.

Google is also expanding its Top News and Breaking News features that highlight breaking news features from news organizations on the YouTube home page. These sections currently appear in 17 countries, including the U.S., U.K., France, Italy, Japan, India, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, and Nigeria, and Google aims to double that number in the coming months.

Another part of this initiative will be to better surface local news. Google is now testing features that’ll surface local news in the YouTube app for TVs, making it easier for users to find local news sources. These tests are being run in 25 markets across the U.S. and Google says that local news has gotten “strong engagement” so far. The testing will soon expand to dozens more markets, including Cincinnati, Las Vegas, and Kansas City.

Finally, Google says that it’s going to start showing info cards from sources like Wikipedia and Encyclopædia Britannica alongside “a small number of well-established historical and scientific topics that have often been subject to misinformation.” Some examples of these topics include the moon landing and the Oklahoma City Bombing. These bits of additional info will begin appearing today.

source: androidandme