Google News To Get Ratings from Nielsen and Media Metrix
After just a few months of tinkering, Google's News product, still in "Beta" status, is beginning to get enough recognition that it can no longer be ignored by ratings companies, according to USC Annenberg OJR. Next month both Nielsen and Media Metrix will add Google News to its monthly ratings reports. If the service had been ranked this month by Nielsen it would have come in at number 18 on the charts, with 3.4 million unique users - just below LATimes.com and above Netscape News, SFGate and the Guardian. With no editorial staff, it's hard for many organizations to accept Google News as a legitimate news outlet. But when people are looking for an objective view of the world, sometimes eliminating central editorial control has its advantages. Audiences increasingly are making their own decisions about what constitutes relevant and valuable content, and while they still value editorial quality, they're far more likely than ever to make the final cut themselves, click by click.