Google news will return to Spain in 2022
Google News is a website created by Google whose updates occur every 15 minutes. There are many editions in various languages, including English, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Russian, Greek, Chinese, Korean or Japanese, among others. Each edition is adapted to the readers of that country, providing it with content that may interest you.
From here we are going to show you information about the platform so that you know exactly what it consists of and the controversy that led Google to close its edition in Spain. Despite everything, Google News will return to Spain. When will it happen and how will we be able to see your news highlights? Here we tell you!
What is Google News?
Google News is a content collector, a news search engine that works automatically through the continuous tracking of information based on the main online communication media.
The platform selects the articles and classifies them following a process that takes into account the sites where the news appears and their level of frequency. The news will be chosen without taking into account any specific ideology, so that the user can choose the ones that interest him the most from a wide selection of alternatives.
Google News is a website that stands out for its neutrality as it is not directed by humans, but rather the selection of news that it will later display are the result of a computerized system. The version in Spain stopped working at the end of 2014, something that we will explain in more detail in the next point.
Why did Google News close in Spain?
Google News in Spain closed in December 2014, after an Intellectual Property Law was approved in which the right of publishers to be rewarded by news aggregators was made clear through the controversial AEDE canon.
The company, therefore, was forced to close its edition in our country by the new Spanish legislation, although not long ago it has returned to report on its return. As stated by the Google directive, the objective of this platform is to help the user to obtain more sources in order to obtain more information associated with a specific event.
As they point out, it is a tool that fights misinformation, at the same time that it helps editors and journalists to increase their number of readers by providing free traffic that can benefit them very positively.
In this way, the new copyright law makes the Spanish media decide on their own content, that is, the way it will appear on the internet and the income generated by it.
In this regard, Google confirms that they are willing to work with the media to reach as many agreements as necessary in order to protect your rights under this new law.
In the same way, they commit to offer their program of licensed products, Spain Google News Showcase, which offers new experiences, paying publishers for the cared content that they like the most and that will go to the panels of both Google News and by Discover.
Google News Spain works again
Google has already confirmed that it will reopen Google News in Spain in early 2022 after the Spanish Government approved the royal decree law, the result of European regulations that eliminates the collective management of copyright in the digital framework. In this way, the media will be able to negotiate with Google individually and freely.
Starting next year, Google News Spain is back online and will feature links to practical and relevant content from many different sources. Thus, the Spanish public will be able to find more information associated with a current news item or a specific topic, while the media will have a new help that will generate more traffic on their pages and will provide them with a greater number of readers.
After this royal decree was approved, Google assured that the "ideal conditions for the potential launch of the platform in Spain" already existed, although, before making it possible, they needed to study the new law point by point.
From Google Spain they are clear that journalism requires the collaboration of technological media, the Government and the information media in order to move forward and have a promising future. In fact, the international company is willing to help the media to boost their growth through the transformation of their business models with initiatives such as the Google News Initiative.
However, not everyone is satisfied with the new decree law. Without going any further, Cedro, the association of publishers and authors of books, newspapers and magazines, regrets the elimination of mandatory collective management by weakening the protection system and cause legal uncertainty.
The same happens in the case of FAPE, the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain, from where they believe that the abolition of mandatory collective management affects authors, facilitating individual agreements between platforms and publishers, which are still opaque. As they assert, the previous model allowed a "balanced negotiation in the parts", as well as greater transparency in the contracts and security for the authors when they receive the part that corresponded to them after having used their work.
As for AMI, the association of information media, has been more prudent in terms of the Government's decision, although it has always expressed itself in favor of the previously implemented system.
From the Open Editors Club, which brings together hundreds of media, they are totally satisfied with the new rule. The reason they have given is that the editors of the media will be able to regain the management of their rights, which were once taken from them by a law, which they believe is unfair and harmful.
According to CLABE, this Royal Decree means a significant change for the publishing sector and its future relationship with content aggregators such as Google News. The association had been betting on this legislative change for a long time to create other business opportunities and generate income in line with current technology and digitization.
How to see Google News in Spain?
Google News in Spanish will not have a place in Spain until 2022. However, it is now possible to access the different international versions. Through the Google support website you can consult other editions in different languages, where we will also find Google International News in Spanish from Latin America and the entire Hispanic audience in the United States.
If this is the first time you see Google News, you may think that it is not much use to find other news that has nothing to do with Spain. However, Google News has excellent customization options that you will find in the personal panel. From here it is possible to add the sections that interest you the most to take a look at the most relevant news according to the places and subjects that are most attractive to you.
That way, you will be able to generate specific sections including words like "Spain" or "Madrid". You can also include them in your account as main sections, so that every time you open Google News, the most important news associated with the content that really worries or interests you will appear before you. The only thing you need to be able to access this personalization system is to have a Google account.
Without going any further, despite being in an international version like the Latin one, the widget created by weather.com will offer you the weather forecast for the Spanish region where you are. In this way it will seem that you are in front of the Spanish Google News that will soon see the light.
In the upper right corner you can access a configuration that will allow you to select the media that are of your preference and customize them to receive frequent updates. That way you will get a very useful news panel designed to your liking.
Google News long ago decided to completely renew the design, offering a minimalist style. Previously, there were a multitude of boxes or reduced images with photos of the most important news that could overwhelm, something that changed to obtain a cleaner and more orderly interface.
Each topic is focused following different perspectives depending on the way in which the media present the same news. The user can also expand the panel from the lower right corner and click on the option "See complete news" to view the list of existing news on the matter.
Be that as it may, Google News has optimal performance to keep users informed, although it also allows them to comment on the panel settings to make it more functional based on their preferences.
