Dear Google, Clean Up Google News

Google is still playing it very inconsistently when it comes to how it decides what blogs get indexed in Google News and what doesn't. In addition, they're also now inadvertently scooping up forum content from mainstream sites. This, mind you, is par for the course for a rare Google product that is actually out of beta.

I have blogged about this issue several times now. And Google, to their credit, promised to be more forthcoming. However, that was three months ago and we've seen little movement since. Yahoo needs to follow the same path now that they have removed most blogs from their news search engine. What's the criteria? What cuts the mustard and what doesn't? C'mon gang. Follow Topix's model. (By the way, Topix is also exemplary in their handling of press releases on topic pages. They're separated. See lower right of this page.)

Here's the latest example of Google News' double standard when it comes to non-professional content. On my personalized page tonight I saw links to this forum post on CNET Reviews. (See image below.) Google's gotta come clean on what's news and Yahoo News needs to follow too now that it's more like Google.