Google News inclusion / requirements.

I am working on a new sports related website that will be the home to a monthly print sports newspaper.

We will be publishing every months issue as individual articles on the site, as well as a full PDF copy. We will have roughly around 10 to 20 articles per month. I've seen many legit newspapers / publications be picked up by Google News and seemingly the Internets top syndication networks as some kind of formal syndication at the deepest level of the Internet! I want my newspaper articles to find the people who want to read them! I want to be picked up by Google News and the deepest syndication the Internet can offer. So how do I get that done?

I believe the best start will be to concentrate on Google News inclusion then take a look at other services that come up along the way. (I also hope to stumble across leads as to how to benefit from / utilize press release services.)

So the research begins:

What is Google News?

http://news.google.com/intl/en_us/about_google_news.html

A Novel Approach to News

Google News gathers stories from more than 4,500 English-language news sources worldwide, and automatically arranges them to present the most relevant news first. Topics are updated every 15 minutes, so you're likely to see new stories each time you check the page. Pick the item that interests you and you'll go directly to the site which published that story.

Google News is a highly unusual news service in that our results are compiled solely by computer algorithms, without human intervention. As a result, news sources are selected without regard to political viewpoint or ideology, enabling you to see how different organizations are reporting the same story. This variety of perspectives and approaches is unique among online news sites, and we consider it essential in helping you stay informed about the issues that matter most to you.

How is it decided what stories are published on the Google News home page?

Google News has no human editors selecting stories or deciding which ones deserve top placement. Our headlines are selected by computer algorithms, based on factors including how often and on what sites a story appears online. This is very much in the tradition of Google web search, which relies heavily on the collective judgment of online publishers to determine which sites offer the most valuable and relevant information. Similarly, Google News relies on the editorial judgment of online news organizations to determine which stories are most deserving of inclusion and prominence on the Google News home page.

Also, here is a fun early introduction to the Google News Service from Slate.com back in September 2002.

RE: Google News "This page was generated entirely by computer algorithms without human editors," boasts the fine print at the bottom of the Google News Web site, which debuted a significantly upgraded beta yesterday. "No humans were harmed or even used in the creation of this page." The Google News page exceeds every editor's dream—to produce a first-rate publication without the meddling interference of reporters—by making the editors themselves extraneous as well. Instead of assigning humans to gather and present the news, Google News delegates the task to software developed over the last nine months by five Google engineers (presumably all human)." Full article.

How do I submit to Google News?

• I work for a news organization. Who can answer my questions regarding our news content and the Google News service?

  Please contact us. We're pleased to work with individual publishers to ensure their content is appropriately represented in Google News.

• What if I don't see my favorite news source in Google News?

  We're as shocked as you are! If we're missing a publisher that we should be covering, please send us your ideas. While we can't guarantee that we'll heed your recommendation, we do promise to review all the suggestions we receive without regard to political viewpoint or ideology.

The above related Google FAQ's and all other sources, all point to this form: http://www.google.com/support/news?hl=en

I will be making a direct inquiry to the Google team once the development of my site progresses a little more. For now, let's see what else is out there on the topic as I am curious as to what others have learned about Google news requirements and the submission process.

Google News Syndication Requirements:

Excellent summary of technical and content requirements from: http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/003934.html

(1) It took me a long time to get included. I was rejected a couple times prior and I had to make a good case for me to be included.

(2) Technical requirements:

• In order for the Google crawler to correctly gather articles, each page that displays an article's full text needs to have a unique URL that does not change. Google cannot include sites in Google News that display multiple articles at the same URL.
  
• The URL for each article must contain a unique number consisting of at least three digits.
  
• Keep in mind that Google cannot include sites for which the URL of the main page includes a date. URLs with dates in them often change on a daily or weekly basis. This prevents Google from crawling the site for new content, as Google is unable to detect the most current URL to be crawled.
  
• Google's automated crawler is currently best able to crawl regular HTML links. Google is unable to crawl image links or links embedded in JavaScript.

(3) Making your case:

• Provide a good historical background of the site
  
• Show awards the site received
  
• Give stats on the site
  
• Tell them about your editors and authors
  
• Tell them about who links to your site
  
• Make sure you are news related or mostly news related.
  
• Make sure your site complies with the technical requirements, and show them that is does.

Below is a related email surfaced @ http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=12132 from the same helpful guru that listed the above guidelines.

"Thank you for your reply. As you may know, Google News is highly unusual in that it offers a news service compiled solely by computer algorithms without human intervention. While the sources of the news vary in perspective and editorial approach, their selection for inclusion is without regard to political viewpoint or ideology. Please be aware, however, that we do not currently include sites that are purely news aggregators. Similarly, we do not include sites that are written and maintained by a single individual.

Google News currently gathers articles by crawling online news sites. Following the general technical guidelines below should help our crawler find and index articles from your site correctly:

1. In order for our crawler to correctly gather articles, each page that displays an article's full text needs to have a unique URL that does not change. We cannot include sites in Google News that display multiple articles at the same URL.

2. The URL for each article must contain a unique number consisting of at least three digits.

For example, our news crawler would not crawl articles with the following URLs:
www.google.com/news/article23.html
www.google.com/lemurs_in_the_mist.html

It would crawl these pages:
www.google.com/news/08112003/article.html
http://www.google.com/news/lemurs_i...mist/23467.html

3. Keep in mind that we cannot include sites for which the URL of the main page includes a date. URLs with dates in them often change on a daily or weekly basis. This prevents us from crawling the site for new content, as we are unable to detect the most current URL to be crawled.

For example, if a URL changes from /novembernews.html to /decembernews.html, Google will continue to crawl the novembernews.html page, and thus not find any new content.

4. Our automated crawler is currently best able to crawl regular HTML links. We are unable to crawl image links or links embedded in JavaScript.

An example of a site that we are able to crawl successfully is http://english.chosun.com. Please note that each article on this site has a highly unique and unchanging URL.

Regards,
The Google Team"

So, what is the news on Google News?

There seems to be a lot of chatter regarding Google News requirements from political conspiracy theories to scrutiny of it's automated news collecting algorithms and comparisons to other meta news systems vs real world human editor news outlets and much more. Cool,,, whatever.

The most important and expected understanding is that not just anyone is going to be accepted as a Google News source. People fuss over not being included as a Google news source and blame it on Google being biased or that they intervened for some other reason to include or not include a source. Who becomes a news source is NOT an automated process, what articles are outputted from those sources IS an automated process.

It's really quite simple,,, a professional and reputable publication is required which has multiple authors and a formal editorial review process. If you think you meet those requirements, prove it. If you do meet those requirements then it may make sense to move into discussion with Google to confirm the technical requirements.