Google moves to make original reporting rank higher in search

MANILA, Philippines – Google is making a move to highlight original reporting more in search. 

Google’s vice president for news, Richard Gingras, made the announcement in a blog, on Thursday, September 12, acknowledging the value of original reporting. 

“Some stories can also be both critically important in the impact they can have on our world and difficult to put together, requiring reporters to engage in deep investigative pursuits to dig up facts and sources.  These are among the reasons why we aim to support these industry efforts and help people get access to the most authoritative reporting.” Gringas said.

The executive explained the steps they’re taking. Google employs 10,000 “raters” around the world who provide feedback to the search results that the search engine brings up. The raters are guided by Google’s search rater guidelines – a “public document that allows raters to understand and assess the unique characteristics of content that appears in Search results.”

The guidelines can be accessed on this link here. 

With the focus on original reporting, Gringas said they’ve updated the guidelines so that raters would rate original news reports as “very high quality,” the highest rating. These are articles that provide “information that would not otherwise have been known had the article not revealed it.” 

“Original, in-depth, and investigative reporting requires a high degree of skill, time, and effort,” the guidelines say. 

Google is also asking raters to consider the publisher’s overall reputation in the updated guidelines, which goes: “Many other kinds of websites have reputations as well. For example, you might find that a newspaper (with an associated website) has won journalistic awards. Prestigious awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize award, or a history of high quality original reporting are strong evidence of positive reputation.” 

The feedback received from raters are then used to tune and validate the search algorithms. 

Gingras also makes it clear that the feedback from the raters “doesn’t change the ranking of the specific results they’re reviewing; instead it is used to evaluate and improve algorithms in a way that applies to all results.” The statement appears to be a necessary disclaimer at a time when US President Donald Trump has consistently accused Google, without real evidence, of bias. 

“Giving everyone better access to original journalism across all types of stories – ranging from movies, sports, music and celebrity scoops to the serious journalism behind #MeToo, the Panama Papers and the opioid crisis – is all about helping people stay informed about the news that matters to them,” Gingras finished. – Rappler.com