A Cyprus based news site, Playfuls, which was ranked 16th in Google's English-language news sources was removed from Google News as the news site was suspected of 'gaming' Google News algorithm. Playfuls had nearly 8,000 listings in the site even higher than New York Times,
A Google spokesperson validated the news saying, "To ensure a high quality service for our end users, we periodically review our index of news sources, particularly following user complaints, and have recently removed some sources that do not meet our criteria as news organizations, including Playfuls".
The spokesman mentioned guidelines that select and deselect websites:
-The source offers information that is updated regularly
-It is managed by an organization (not an individual) and includes organizational information on its site
-The source does not include hate speech or pornography
-The source does not allow open posting of content without editorial review
-The source's website is technically conducive to inclusion
Google News has a software which searches thousands of sources and selects only the news bits it considers newsworthy. Beginning April 26, many international news sources have been dropped, Playfuls was one of them.
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