Google News has a new feature: custom localized news. Just visit the Google News homepage and scroll down to the “Local News” input box. Enter your location, click Add, and you’ll find a new navigation entry in the top left.
I entered “stuttgart, germany,” and as you can see in the screenshot, this section now displays news in relation to Stuttgart (like stuff about Porsche, which is headquartered around here). You can also link out to localized pages, e.g. using the URL:
news.google.com/nwshp?geo=stuttgart,+germany
Google claims that while they’re not the first news site to aggregate local news, they’re “doing it a bit differently”:
[W]e’re able to create a local section for any city, state or country in the world and include thousands of sources. We’re not simply looking at the byline or the source, but instead we analyze every word in every story to understand what location the news is about and where the source is located.
On that note, while Google Calendar can also show local events, Google does not yet have a good event site in the style of Yahoo-owned Upcoming.org… showing parties, conferences and other happenings in your city. Still, this latest feature is a step closer to bringing truly personal news to you…
[Thanks Jérôme Flipo!]
