Google News Has Gone Too "Irish"

Thargor

I use Google News a lot, along with Google Now and the recommended news stories on a new tab in Android Chrome but Ive noticed over the last couple of months all the stories are Irish, it used to be one Irish story in ten but now its more like nine out of ten. I used to love it because it was a perfect mix for me, tech, world news, politics, films, cycling with loads of random interesting stuff thrown in aswell, it never disappointed and was everything a newsfeed was supposed to be (I hate Facebook too much to use it).

Then something changed, now its all complete and utter sh1t, there were 5 stories about Vogue Williams in my feed the other day. Her.ie, Glenda Gilson, rugby, rugby, rugby stories everywhere, the same stupid crap about the Late Late show and First Dates Ireland over and over again, blatant advertising for Pennys clothes and new restaurants in Dublin, it goes on and on and its all pure sh1te, it actually sent me a notification the other day and it was the death notices for Galway! Telling it Im not interested in these kinds of stories makes no difference, they'll be back again the next day.

Is there any way to go back or some setting I changed or have they just destroyed it for no reason like they did with Google Finance? Its unusable in its current state, I dont want Irish stories especially the crap they're serving up now...

corkie

I think what you get shown is based on things you've read in the past, also your google searches and other things you do with google apps etc.

https://news.google.com/

https://myactivity.google.com/item?restrict=news

There is a method to hide some sources? at least the first link has a method to manage them in settings.

^^^ Try the links in PC Browser.

Edit: - On the webpage option to hide sources, use the 3 dots menu under articles to hide that content.

Edit 2: - Maybe customize discover and choose more categories your interested in, to outweigh useless feeds?

Dravokivich

Im getting similar crap. It aint all on my activity. Ive no interest in reality tv. Never looked for it. Get it all over my feeds. Same with some sports. I've no interest in soccer. But I can tell Solkjear is doing well with United every time I open a new tab.

Renegade Mechanic

Filter bubble. They're all at it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble

drunkmonkey

Go into your Google account and switch off activity controls.

AllForIt

Ditch goggle news. Add bookmarks in your browser for your preferred News sources.

The high horse brigade

AllForIt wrote: »

Ditch goggle news. Add bookmarks in your browser for your preferred News sources.

Or better use an app like Feedly. I've used it since Google closed Google RSS feeds.

In the last few weeks I've closed all my social media and have added lots of the news and blog feeds to Feedly which has now become my main news source with no bullsh1t. It just shows me headlines and marks as read as I scroll down, I can open the articles or swipe them to add to read later.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devhd.feedly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JglNomtS1U0

corkie

corkie wrote: »

11 Best News Apps For Android Smartphones To Stay Informed In 2019

^^^ Google news gone to "Irish" for you? Link inspired by @Thargor

OldMrBrennan83

It definitely has increased, which is perfectly fine with me.

Thargor

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

It definitely has increased, which is perfectly fine with me.

Its not perfectly fine though, Ireland just doesnt generate enough news to fill an entire app like they seem to be trying to do, wish Id taken a screenshot of 4 Vouge Williams stories in a row and one more further down the page that I had the other day, it was honestly like a WaterfordWhispers p1sstake of Irish media.

Tried Feedly and Flipboard today but they're not great, Ill give them a proper go this week but I just wish I could get Google News to go back to how it was, I tried banning every Irish source from Google News aswell but in desperation they're stuffing it with articles from Roscommon people, The Kildare Nationalist and other regional sh1te, anything with a .ie in the URL basically, its an even bigger mess than what I started with. Ill keep banning them and see what happens.

Bluefoam

I've found that I'm getting a massive amount of GAA, royal wedding and celebrity reality news... Genuinely, this is what I get, but I've no interest in any of it (I enjoy the GAA, but not a fanboy)... I've a few topics added as favourites, but they no longer come through my feeds. I now have to go through two menus to see them.

I downloaded Feedly as it was recommended above (thanks). I like it, because it allows me to thrawl my favourite news sites in a casual way, and is specific to my criteria.

Reati

Remember the algo's here don't just look at you and your browsing history. They look at what is popular across your age range, sex and location and hundreds of other micro inputs. So it's trying to show you what other people "like you" want to see.

I've noticed it too though. Google news has become shocking bad!

Keith186

Reati wrote: »

Remember the algo's here don't just look at you and your browsing history. They look at what is popular across your age range, sex and location and hundreds of other micro inputs. So it's trying to show you what other people "like you" want to see.

I've noticed it too though. Google news has become shocking bad!

I think it was back in October when they stopped supporting their News and Weather app. I switched to Google News app then and the content is definitely different, don't read half as many stores from it now.

testarossa40

"Deaths in Laois", anyone??!


Swear to god that fupping article would pop up in my Google feed every fupping day until I "Not interested" the Laois Gazette or whatever the main site was... I don't even know a single person in Laois - crazy algorithms...

Gazzmonkey

OP is bang on..

Same crap on my app, football, celebrity, makeup etc lots of irrelevant crap I would never read and have never searched for online. No idea what's going on but its obviously affecting more users than just me, even changing 'customise discover' makes no difference.

Looks like another app we'll have to disable in the near future, but I wonder is the new app behaviour a punitive measure for those of us using add blockers or locking down all privacy features in the google account. I don't allow Google a single privilege to any of my data.

batistuta9

I don't use the app but if you go to news.google on the browser you can change the country. On the left, language & region. That'll give you the top stories + sites then from that country.

They've been ramping up the regionalization recently. Likely why that poster gets death notices for laois, IP is showing as there.
Instead of just the country specific results that they've always had you're now getting more local ones again on IP/location

The articles for you in chrome mobile, they were mostly always Irish sites. Generic though, current affairs, sport, celeb, etc. I've it closed, never bothered with it

_Puma_

Really does take a thread like this to get you to realize how pervasive "marketing" and "advertising" in technology is becoming.

Everything and everyone is being aggregated together to make it easier to target sell people stuff. Be that some product or service or in a more sinister vein some political outlook, aka Trump Brexit, Cambridge Anayltica etc..... All under the guise of "News".

Best thing you can do is turning off these "Activity" controls as much as possible on platforms, removing yourself from these platforms to more user centric content generators forums boards like Reddit, Boards, Twitter(Beware the Astroturfers or the more "Politicaly" involved user content) etc..

The suggestion of using sources like Feedly is a good one but does take some time to set up and maintain your feeds(Harks back to the RSS days). It is a worthwhile effort as long as these services are maintained and updated. I've seen many a new aggregator disappear over the years to the might of Facebook and Google.