Google Brings More Real-Time Coverage, Google+ Comments To Google News

Google News announced they have added three large changes to Google News. They include larger images on the main page; a realtime coverage page to surface the latest articles and commentary; and relevant Google+ posts for a new social perspective.

To me, it pretty much looks like Google is looking for ways to inject Google+ all over Google News. But let’s explore the new changes that are rolling out to the U.S. edition of Google News over the next week.

Notice the larger image on the story plus the Google+ comment from U.S. Department of State Google+ account:

Google News has a new “realtime coverage” button next to stories and when you click on it you are taken to that coverage, accompanied by Google+ discussion on the right hand side:

The main feature here, though, is obviously the addition of more content from Google+ on Google News. Given the almost visceral reaction many Google users have to Google+, the company has wisely decided to allow its users to opt out of this feature. If you don’t want to see these discussion from Google+, Google says, “you can either log out of Google or turn off the display of Google+ posts via the Google News settings page.”