Personalisation & Sharing in Google News redesign

Google News has redesigned its home page, giving users the option to personalise the news they want to see by selecting or choose or excluding publishers.

The new Google News page consists of two parts: "Top News" and the personalised "News For You". In the beginning users are asked to select their news preferences - they type of news they like and how often they are reading those articles. In an overview about the redesign and new features, Google also explains how users can target their language and location, share news stories via social media and select which news sources they would prefer to see more or less of in their personalised Google News.

Could Facebook become a major player for photo search?

With Facebook looking to become a much bigger player for Search, it's not surprising that a new photo recognition feature is currently being tested, with the help of newly acquired technology company Divvyshot.

As well as making it easier to tag people in photos, a full face recognition feature, it could significantly enhance Facebook's potential for photo search. With some 400 million active users worldwide, this could mean the networking site could compete certainly with Bing, if not with Google, when it comes to picture searches - if the technology is working correctly and is being embraced by Facebook users.

This system is already in place in Apple's iPhoto and Google's Picassa desktop systems but this is a big move into recognising people in a Web App. With this power you could ask to find pictures of someone you know but people haven't tagged (scary in our opinion) or find people who look like you.

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