In celebration of Google News' 20th anniversary, Google has introduced a revamped UI for Google News on desktop. The updated UI focuses on offering users various customizations to help them catch up on stories that matter to them. Google says that it developed the new UI based on feedback from readers, and it should make it "easier for you to catch up on the most important news by bringing Top stories, Local news and personalized picks for you to the top of the page."

As you can see in the attached screenshots, the updated Google News desktop UI features a search bar at the top, followed by a row of tabs that replaces the navigation drawer from the old layout. The first tab, titled Home, is selected by default when you open Google News on your desktop.

Screenshot of Google News Desktop UI revamp home page.

It has a new "Your briefing" header with the current day/date, followed by "Top stories," "Local news," and "Picks for you" sections. The Home tab also features a weather widget in the top left corner which shows the current temperature, and you can expand to view additional details. Next to the "Home" tab, you'll find the "For you" and "Following" tabs, which show personalized recommendations and news about topics you're following, respectively.

Screenshot of topic customization in Google News on desktop.

Along with the layout changes, Google has introduced a customization option that gives you the option to customize the topics that appear in your feed. Google says that the new feature "makes it simple to scroll and click through to the stories that most interest you. You can add, remove or reorder topics - just click the blue customize button in the top right of the Your Topics section to get started."

Furthermore, Google has expanded the "Fact Check" section in Google News on desktop to provide more context. The new Google News revamp also marks the service's return to Spain after an "eight-year hiatus."

The Google News desktop UI revamp is live for all users, and you can check it out by heading over to news.google.com and clicking on the "Try it out" button at the top of the page. It's worth noting that Google is currently giving users the option to revert to the old UI from the settings.


Source: Google