Google News unveiled a new feature during a session at the Online News Association Conference in Boston at the weekend which will allow publishers to highlight their top content and give “even more credit where credit is due”, according to the Google blog.
At present the so-called “standout content” tag is only available on the US edition of Google News and it is not clear from the Google blog when it plans to roll out the new feature in the UK.
The Google blog explains how news sites can flag up top content:
If you put the tag in the HTML header of one of your articles, Google News may show the article with a ‘featured’ label on the Google News homepage and News search results. The syntax for this new tag is as follows:
<link rel=”standout” href=“http://www.example.com/scoop_article_2.html” />
Standout content tags work best when news publishers recognise not just their own quality content, but also the original journalistic contributions of others when your stories draw from the standout efforts of other publications. Linking out to other sites is well recognised as a best practice on the web, and we believe that citing others’ standout content is important for earning trust as you also promote your own standout work.
Google is asking news sites to use the tag a maximum of seven times a week so that it can recognise what is exceptional content.
- The 10,000 Words blog was at Online News Association Conference and has more on the launch of the feature.