Alternatives to Google News?

Fixing and making things, what tools to get and what skills to learn, ...
jacob
Site Admin
Posts: 15907
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:38 pm
Location: USA, Zone 5b, Koppen Dfa, Elev. 620ft, Walkscore 77
Contact:

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by jacob »

Wow! Yes!!

OTCW
Posts: 437
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:55 am

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by OTCW »

UK-with-kids wrote:
Thu Nov 08, 2018 4:40 pm
I like to get my news from "The Week", a British magazine which I have delivered through my door every Friday. I previously had a subscription about 20 years ago when I lived overseas and before the internet was a thing, but this time I started getting it as an alternative to finding myself addicted to online news. Usually after a week there is enough news to fill the magazine and I find it more efficient and less distracting to just spend an hour or so catching up once a week.

The best thing about it is that the magazine style and format is 99.9% identical to the way I remember it from 20 years ago. I quite like things that don't keep changing all the time.
Newsweek was the last magazine I had a subscription to. Not sure if they are even around anymore. I'd love to go back to a once weekly print edition of the news. The Sunday paper here is awful, or I'd go with that.

Stahlmann
Posts: 1121
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:05 pm

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by Stahlmann »

I read jacob posts. I'm not convinced by praise of old google, probably need to apply this technique for looonger time.

However...
New google -> just title of article
vs
"old google" (I'm talking about substitute provided above) -> title + 1,5 sentence per news.
In both cases you're allowed to click to follow article (well...) and in both cases there're "follow up" boxes.
You probably know the "taste" of each newspaper after few read articles (unless there's some rebrand/lay off/new hiring, but it doesn't happen often)
Yes, on high res settings new design is just a waste of so much space.


However, I had something deeper in my mind when I posted my last post:
[most investors/people are] completely uninformed (very few people can tell you the current oil price, as well as the USD/GBP rate, what kind of men's wear is currently popular, which is the best-selling CPU, and what the AGW implications are for Arizona),
GN seems good for such purposes (many sections on one site in range of few clicks). But question is... how do you remember that on 1-6 mo. scale? Of course, somebody can open (for example) USD/GPD ratio chart anytime he wants, but I suspect that's not most effective and simply looking retrospectively nobody is "more informed".

jacob
Site Admin
Posts: 15907
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:38 pm
Location: USA, Zone 5b, Koppen Dfa, Elev. 620ft, Walkscore 77
Contact:

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by jacob »

There's something called "google brain". Google allows you to look all these things up separately as does a library. However, if the data does not exist in your brain, it's not possible to ask questions that combine these things, because google will not do that for you. If you want to [ask this], some structure has to exist in your brain that allows you to do this.

Another example might be how I stare at https://finviz.com/map.ashx for a few minutes every day. These patterns are then "burned" into my mind along with all the other news I read. So I remember what news causes specific changes in clusters of companies. (It was absolutely frustrating when finviz changed the map some months ago because I'm a visual thinker.) I suspect there are way more neurons involved in this process than if someone who hasn't gone through that process tried to pull data up on a chart along with a stock of old newspapers. Over time, what goes on in the world get associated with different patterns.

Relying on input like this might suggest I have google-brain when it comes to input. This is why having my input formats changed on me is so disturbing.

UK-with-kids
Posts: 228
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2018 4:55 am
Location: Oxbridge, UK

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by UK-with-kids »

There's a quote about how humans tend to overestimate the implications of change in the short term but underestimate them in the long run. Maybe the best source of news is the long term version. Instead of constant articles about how the robots are coming and we'll all be using autonomous vehicles next year, something that looks at where technological advancements are taking us as a species. Instead of news of the latest spat with Russia or China, analysis of the slow decline of Western civilization. Summary weekly and monthly newspapers do at least have to focus on what really happened over the reporting period, rather than filling a daily or hourly front page with "news" for its own sake. Maybe the ideal frequency for newspapers is once every decade or so. :P

tsch
Posts: 57
Joined: Thu Feb 25, 2016 8:47 pm
Location: Sonoma County, CA

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by tsch »

Maybe the best source of news is the long term version.
That's the premise of "The Correspondent"—pitched as "unbreaking news":
https://thecorrespondent.com/
https://boingboing.net/2018/11/14/jay-r ... my-ne.html

Though the frequency is somewhat more than a decade. :)

thegreatvoid

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by thegreatvoid »

if anybody is looking for an alternative to youtube, since it´s no longer a free speech platform , I´ve been using a site called bitchute.dot.com lately . Lots of content

prognastat
Posts: 991
Joined: Fri May 04, 2018 8:30 pm
Location: Texas
Contact:

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by prognastat »

@thegreatvoid

I wonder how well they will be keeping up considering stripe had already severed ties and now paypal has too.

If you can't get paid things become tough quickly.

Then of course there is still the problem that there is little to no money in investigative journalism on most online video platforms. So though there may be a lot of political discussion/information available actual journalism is still pretty scant.

enigmaT120
Posts: 1240
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:14 pm
Location: Falls City, OR

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by enigmaT120 »

I thought youtube was just for music videos and concerts. And teaching me how to change the rear suspension in my car.

jacob
Site Admin
Posts: 15907
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:38 pm
Location: USA, Zone 5b, Koppen Dfa, Elev. 620ft, Walkscore 77
Contact:

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by jacob »

rameshff wrote:
Mon Nov 12, 2018 6:05 pm
does http://theoldgnews.com/ work for you?
They're on patreon now. Looks like I'm #2 :mrgreen:

Fish
Posts: 570
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 9:09 am

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by Fish »

Well that was short-lived :(
Dec 8 at 3:09am
Farewell

To the patreon subscribers, please unsubscribe. If you want, I can also refund your donations (I just need to figure out how to use this website).

Google once again changed things.
The most recent change would mean a lot of work to get it back the way it was, so we are shutting down permanently.
Thank you to all our supporters, it has been a fun ride. If anyone wants to take up this project, please contact theoldgnews@gmail.com.

fingeek
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 8:16 am
Location: Wales

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by fingeek »

May I submit "Stop consuming the news" as a healthy option 😃.

For newsish data (tech updates, local property news, a few select blogs), I use feedly and RSS. If it don't have an RSS feed, I don't consume it. And feedly/RSS helps me throttle my consumption - I might check it 2-3x per week

KevinW
Posts: 959
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 4:45 am

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by KevinW »

I just use Feedly to read an RSS feed from one major reputable news source. For a while it was Reuters but I couldn't keep up with the pace of the articles. Now I'm on ABC News. I own a little DIS so figured I should read "my" own product. Reuters is better-written (higher grade level) but ABC is better at concision.

Hristo Botev
Posts: 1734
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:42 am

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by Hristo Botev »

Disappointed with what Google News was spitting out to me and inspired by the Revenge of Analog book (and also because I'm just a curmudgeon anyway), I recently gave up news aggregators completely and got an online subscription to my local newspaper, which has a good e-paper option that is laid out like an actual newspaper that I can read on my hybrid laptop/tablet. Some friends of mine are journalists and they make good points about how much better the subscription model is to the click-based revenue model when it comes to supporting quality journalism. I generally read a little bit of the paper in the morning as the kids are getting ready, and the rest of the paper in the evening before dinner; and I don't consume any news (apart from the forum, of course) during the day. I've enjoyed letting real-life humans and not AI or whatever curate my news for me.

leecalvin
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2019 6:42 pm
Location: Edmonton, AB

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by leecalvin »

I agree with fingeek on stopping the consumption of news altogether, mostly for your own personal sanity. Most news has little personal effect on your life, it provides things to ponder and talking points with others, but that's about it 99% of the time.

Pick a few high quality sources and read them through a news aggregator like the already suggested Feedly. I personally am a linux geek and prefer the command line, so I use Newsboat (aka Newsbeuter). You could also go the hardcore geeky route and use Tiny Tiny RSS on a personal server or a VPS.

I am also subscribed to a magazine focused on provincial issues, I live in Alberta Canada, so this would be Alberta Views magazine. That way I'm reading more about local news and events I may or may not want to involve myself in.

chicago81
Posts: 307
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2012 3:24 pm
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by chicago81 »

jacob wrote:
Thu Jun 29, 2017 9:53 am
Google News recently switched to a "minimalist baby"-format with tonnes of white space and about 1/3 of the information density of the "classic" format. Why, oh why is the internet increasingly being designed for people who type with their thumbs and mouth the words they're reading? :evil:

I've found no way to switch it back, so I'm looking for alternative aggregators. Any suggestions?
I solve the "too much white space problem" by just using the "zoom out" function in my browser. Google Chrome seems to have a feature that automatically "remembers" the zoom level across a certain website. I use this often on many sites that have made everything big and spaced out.

User avatar
mcs2269
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2018 5:34 pm
Location: Cincinnati, OH

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by mcs2269 »

jacob wrote:
Thu Jun 29, 2017 9:53 am
Google News recently switched to a "minimalist baby"-format with tonnes of white space and about 1/3 of the information density of the "classic" format. Why, oh why is the internet increasingly being designed for people who type with their thumbs and mouth the words they're reading? :evil:
I think this has more to do with general reception and intelligence of the population ( the mouthing the words part) rather than the mobile use ( the thumb part ). We now make websites and "apps" that are visually optimized for the screen they're being viewed on. Angular 2+ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_(web_framework)) was developed by Google for making progressive web apps that work on phones as well as mobile devices.

All this is to say that it is easy for me ( and therefore easier for google ) to make a website that is dense when viewing on a monitor and spaced out when viewing on a phone.

User avatar
Ego
Posts: 6359
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:42 am

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by Ego »

Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia fame has started a social-media news aggregator thing.

http://wt.social/
Welcome to WT Social

As social networks have grown, they've also amplified the voices of bad actors across the globe. Fake news has influenced global events, and algorithms care only about "engagement", and keeping people addicted to platforms without substance.

WikiTribune wants to be different.

We will never sell your data. Our platform survives on the generosity of individual donors to ensure privacy is protected and your social space is ad-free.

We will empower you to make your own choices about what content you are served, and to directly edit misleading headlines, or flag problem posts.

We will foster an environment where bad actors are removed because it is right, not because it suddenly affects our bottom-line.

But this will only work with your help. So join today and help change the landscape of social media.

JamesR
Posts: 947
Joined: Sun Apr 21, 2013 9:08 pm

Re: Alternatives to Google News?

Post by JamesR »

Ego wrote:
Wed Nov 27, 2019 9:49 pm
Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia fame has started a social-media news aggregator thing.

http://wt.social/
I felt that much of the funding raised for Wikipedia was disingenuously & unnecessarily used for other things in WikiMedia's operations, so I would personally be somewhat suspicious of Jimmy Wales. Meaning I wouldn't assign a higher trust score to this new website than facebook or google or reddit, etc.

Post Reply