Google News announced they have pushed out a new redesign for their Google News site last night. It has been seven years since the last major redesign and that time it didn't go too well.
In this new design, Google aimed to redesign the desktop website for readability and user friendliness. Google said accomplishes these three things:
- We’ve adopted a card format that makes it easier to browse, scan and identify related articles about a story.
- The new layout focuses on key elements, such as publisher names and article labels, and maintains your view and place on the page as you click in and out of stories and explore topics.
- We dedicated the navigation column on the left to sections that you customize. You can jump quickly to news you enjoy, whether it’s standard sections like Sports or Entertainment, or those created by you and powered by your queries, such as “FIFA World Cup” or “Bollywood.”
Google said "we hope this update will better connect our readers with great journalism and give them meaningful insights and context into the world of news."
Here is a screen shot:
But with any change, just like with the redesign from seven years ago, people do not like change. In fact, seven years ago, there were so many complaints about their redesign that Google made changes based on them - which is incredibly rare.
There are massive complaints in the Google News forum, tons and tons of threads asking to bring back the old design. This Google News Help thread is the largest single thread with tons and tons of complaints. People are pleading with Google to bring the old design back or at least give them a way to access the old design.
People do not like change.
I wonder if Google will react or just stick with what they think is best?
Forum discussion at Google News Help.
