Google

If you are Team Android you will be delighted to find out that the wait is almost over and Google is finally opening up its first store in New York City in just a matter of weeks. Unlike the competition, the Google store will be divided into furnished functional areas that will accommodate products where they would normally be used. The store is located in the Google building in Chelsea, at 111 Eighth Avenue.

The large windows that stretch between 15th and 16th Street allow people to preview the products on display. The result? People are eager to get in.

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In a blog post published today, Google’s VP of News, Richard Gingras explained the September 5th changes made to their products.

The latest changes the Google sorting algorithm were made with the intent to “surface and keep surfacing news reporting that is original, i.e., not pieces of content that re-report big stories that are getting good SEO or trending”. Verifying the news sources and YMYL content and its creators becomes paramount. Add on and follow up stories are not considered original content, therefore they lose positioning regardless of SEO.

According to Gingras, the algorithms are tuned and validated by an army of 10,00 raters who are guided by a manual called the Search Rater Guideline. This is a public document that offers readers a better description of what Google considers value in terms of content and ranking.

Concerns quickly surfaced online following the publication of the post. Small publishers who lack the resources to do real investigative work, or the money to hire professional writers considered the measures damaging enough to kill their publication.

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