September 23, 2010 – Eight years since the launch of Google News, the information directory continues to grow as one of the company’s most important products and the Internet’s most influential news portal. Google today indexes news from more than 50,000 sources in 30 languages.

Guardian brought this news to our attention in their article, “Google News turns eight” Google’s news directory has grown from indexing 4,000 sources in 2002 to more than 50,000 today. In July this year Google News had its biggest redesign yet, adding more social features to the site and aligning the homepage further with the company’s new focus on personalized products. However, its effect in the industry is not yet decided and opinions are often in flux, especially among publishers.

Based on the number of articles written and indexed on Google News, the most newsworthy stories from the past eight years include “Iraq war begins as US and allied forces invade the country”, “Hurricane Katrina strikes US Gulf Coast”, and “Death of Michael Jackson”.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.