PRIVATE MENTOR / GLOBAL / MONITOR / Google News

Posted: 12 Dec 14

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WHAT IS GOOGLE NEWS?

If knowledge is power -- and information feeds knowledge -- 

then, yet another free service-product offering from Google

is HIGHLY empowering, indeed.  

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Purpose of this Bulletin

This bulletin exists to insure that you are aware that you can easily and freely create a personal, powerful, unique "information space," in effect, a "personal daily newspaper" -- fed by as many or few publications as you wish -- and tailored to your exact needs and desires.


Here is the Link to the Google News Service

(click here)

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1.  What Wikipedia Says

Excerpted from Wikipedia Article (click here to see the entire article)

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1.1  DEFINED

Google News is a free news aggregator provided and operated by Google Inc, selecting most up-to-date information from thousands of publications by an automatic aggregation algorithm...

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1.2  FUNCTION

Visiting many separate websites frequently to find out if content on the site has been updated can take a long time. 

• Aggregation technology helps to consolidate many websites into one page that can show the new or updated information from many sites. 
• Aggregators reduce the time and effort needed to regularly check websites for updates, creating a unique information space or personal newspaper. 
• Once subscribed to a feed, an aggregator is able to check for new content at user-determined intervals and retrieve the update. 
• The content is sometimes described as being pulled to the subscriber, as opposed to pushed with email or IM. 
• Unlike recipients of some pushed information, the aggregator user can easily unsubscribe from a feed...

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2.  What Google Says

Excerpted from Google News "About" Page (click here to see the entire page)

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2.1  DEFINED

Google News is a computer-generated news site that:

• aggregates headlines from news sources worldwide, 
• groups similar stories together and 
• displays them according to each reader's personalized interests.

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2.2  TRADITIONAL VS GOOGLE APPROACH

Traditionally, news readers first pick a publication and then look for headlines that interest them. We do things a little differently, with the goal of offering our readers:

• more personalized options and 
• a wider variety of perspectives from which to choose. 

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2.3  THE GOOGLE NEWS ADVANTAGE

On Google News we offer links to several articles on every story, so you can: 

• first decide what subject interests you and 
• then select which publishers’ accounts of each story you’d like to read. 
• Click on the headline that interests you and you'll go directly to the site which published that story.

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2.4  HOW THE STORIES ARE PREPARED FOR YOU

Our articles are:

• selected and ranked by computers that evaluate, among other things, how often and on what sites a story appears online. 
• We also rank based on certain characteristics of news content such as freshness, location, relevance and diversity. 
• As a result, stories are sorted without regard to political viewpoint or ideology and you can choose from a wide variety of perspectives on any given story. 

We'll continue to improve Google News by:

• adding sources, 
• fine-tuning our technology, and 
• providing Google News to readers in even more regions.

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FEATURES OF THE SERVICE

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2.5  Personalized news: 

No one can read all the news that’s published every day, so why not set up your page to show you the stories that best represent your interests? Learn more.

2.6  Alerts: 

You can sign up to receive weekly, daily or as-it-happens email alerts on any topic that interests you. Learn more.

2.7  News for your mobile phone: 

If you have a mobile data plan, you can access a special version of Google News right from your mobile phone.

2.8  Feeds: 

You can receive updates of various sections of Google News or Google News search results by subscribing to RSS or Atom feeds in your favorite feed reader. Learn more.

2.9  News archive search: 

Search and explore information from historical archives dating back over 200 years. Learn more.

2.10  More Information:

• Look for more information, find answers to your questions, and send us suggestions in our Help Center pages.
• If you're a news publisher, look for answers to your questions and useful tools in our section Help for Publishers.

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David Nelson

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All Original Content © 2014, The MENTOR Enterprises / ELMS, All Rights Reserved. BUT, I hereby waive those rights, to this extent: You may freely copy and pass this along -- and are urged to do so -- as long as it's all done free of charge, unchanged, you include this statement, AND you inform me as to how it is being used -- at YOUR convenience but, hopefully soonest.

BAY AREA NEWS GROUP (BANG) Pages on Facebook (#2)

Posted:  6 Nov 14

Change #1: 6 Nov -- added link to "Pittsburg/Bay Point News" FB page in par. 3
Change #2: 6 Nov -- added request for information about sites of FREE printed newspaper extracts. in subpara. 4.3, for the various communities served

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Want a superb, easy link into the "heart-beat" of many San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) communities -- and the world, at large?  

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1.  Purpose

To help publicize useful links into the array of informational products and services offered to the public by the Bay Area News Group (BANG) -- which are instantly available on Facebook.

This bulletin is an accumulator to gather together, acquire, and deliver an increasing number of useful information-fragments. As more information on this topic comes to hand, I will reflect it here (opportunity permitting) and indicate the change by adding a revision number in the very title of this bulletin -- so you can tell whether something significant has changed since your last visit.

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2.  Background

This morning, I "discovered" the BANG Facebook page and realized that it contains a wealth of static and dynamic information which could prove invaluable to those interested in SF Bay Area affairs.  Theirs is another human contribution well worth celebrating and incorporating into the life-routine.

Society is still learning what to make of this glorious "Internet Revolution" -- and is doing a great job of figuring it out.  Here is more proof.

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3.  Bay Area News Group (BANG) - (click here for their main FB page)
  

"BANG daily newspapers include the following -- most of which are published as local editions of the San Jose Mercury News" [

The following are FB links to this publisher's product-service mix, extracted from their FB "About" page -- a few hyperlinks were missing, but that was an easy fix -- so all should serve a single mouse-click from here]:

• San Jose Mercury News — the flagship paper of the group
• Contra Costa Times
• Oakland Tribune
• Santa Cruz Sentinel
• The Argus (Fremont)
• The Daily Review (Hayward)
• Marin Independent Journal
• The Reporter (Vacaville)
• Times-Herald (Vallejo)

These were not on the list, but I've taken the liberty of adding them:

• West County Times -- The West County Times is a Bay Area News Group publication that covers West Contra Costa County in California, including the cities of Richmond, El Cerrito, Pinole, San Pablo, Crockett, El Sobrante and Hercules.
• Pittsburg-Bay Point News -- "The Pittsburg News is inserted into the East County Times for subscribers. [Also] Free copies [in print] can be found at various locations in Pittsburg and at the Bay Point BART station." [check inside the "newspaper street-boxes" -- Fridays, I think -- at places like near the entrance to Country Waffles on Atlantic Ave, Pittsburg]

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4.  Some Interesting Features about these pages

In no way do I have the time nor resources to examine many of my "discoveries" in depth -- yet.  No hope of always discerning useful patterns, immediately.  I'll tell you some of what I've found, so far (so you won't have to wait) but with no sure knowledge in me that the findings are consistent throughout all their offerings -- but might be.  You'll have to help me and discover those yourselves.  But, at least you're aware of what I have learned, so far, and what may also be true elsewhere:

   4.1  In the "Photo" section of the page -- images that are replicas of the printed pages.  Click them and you get a closer look at the front pages -- which tells you what they covered, which you can then investigate further, if you desire.  FURTHERMORE, on mouse-click, not only do you get a closer view, you get a bullet-list of the edition's high-points! FANTASTIC!!

   4.2  The "Timeline" or "News Feed" -- which is where you instantly see the running accumulation of comments (theirs and ours) about their published articles -- newest comment on top.  As you scan down the page, like scanning a magazine -- you will see stories they wish to call to our attention.  When you click these, you are taken to the actual stories, themselves.  A very efficient way to quickly see what is going on and what needs to be examined more deeply. 

NOT ONLY THAT -- YOU CAN ENGAGE IN A DISCUSSION OF THE TOPIC, RIGHT THERE (what a splendid chance to communicate with our neighbors, throughout the SFBA -- and even the world!)

   4.3  Free printed inserts -- which are exact duplicates of a community's section as contained in the main printed newspaper -- may be offered to other communities, besides Pittsburg/Bay Point (see para 3., above).  

Reader action request.  Please comment, for the benefit of all, below this bulletin (Thanks!):

• If you know of this free service within your community (yea or nay) and/or

• If you know an exact pick-up location, so residents can access them and/or

• If you have other suggestions, observations, feelings, etc. to offer to help improve things at this end.

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So, this is the beginning of an investigation 
-- not a final-final.

David Nelson



All Original Content © 2014, The MENTOR Enterprises / ELMS, All Rights Reserved. BUT, I hereby waive those rights, to this extent: You may freely copy and pass this along -- and are urged to do so -- as long as it's all done free of charge, unchanged, you include this statement, AND you inform me as to how it is being used -- at YOUR convenience but, hopefully soonest.

ACCUMULATOR: POWERFUL NEWS SOURCES FOR SMART PHONE & COMPUTER

Posted: 31 Oct 14

Purpose

To accumulate links to innovative ways to set oneself up to receive the EXACT categories of news one desires, as easily, reliably, enjoyably, and thoroughly as needed, so as to: (1) inform you of good discoveries, without delay and (2) to help me keep track of growing numbers of these.

Discussion

This morning's discovery of Anews.com triggers the renewal of my efforts to consolidate, all in one place (like an infinite tool-box), all the news-delivery tools I discover, which can fulfill the above purpose.  I have examined this FREE website and have found it to be impressive enough to enroll -- on my desktop AND Android smart phone.  It really is an excellent approach.

Anews.com offers: "All news, blogs, and social media feeds in one simple interface." [My job is to eventually gather ALL simple interfaces into one simple, consolidating interface -- celebrating the achievements of ALL others, as they become known to me]

This is the first of what I hope will be many options, to help you choose exactly what you need, as circumstances change.


David Nelson






All Original Content © 2014, The MENTOR Enterprises / ELMS, All Rights Reserved. BUT, I hereby waive those rights, to this extent: You may freely copy and pass this along -- and are urged to do so -- as long as it's all done free of charge, unchanged, you include this statement, AND you inform me as to how it is being used -- at YOUR convenience but, hopefully soonest.