Why Does Google Now Think Reddit Counts As News?

Google for the longest of time has split searches for certain terms into two areas. One which shows websites which are highly ranked and contain search keywords, while the other shows recent stories from certified ‘news’ outlets which contain the same keywords. This model has served the company well in the past, however now times and changing, and Google wants to give user-generated content more of its own voice too.

As part of this, rather than the traditional Google News box, Google is now re-titling the news section of search results as ‘In The News’.  This new box will contain content on trending topics from blogs and popular user-generated content sites like Reddit.

While this is good news for Reddit users, and the site’s recent investors, the question has to be asked how Google ultimately decides what content is shown in its new ‘In The News’ box. Knowing the less-than-transparent nature of Google’s News Guidelines, it is unlikely they will ever publicise their criteria for post selection.