Google is tweaking the design of Google News so that it works better on tablets, including its ownNexus 7, Nexus 10 and the Apple iPad.
When viewed from a tablet, the new Google News has a less cluttered look with more space between articles. The site will support touch gestures, too, so you can swipe horizontally between sections, or choose “Explore in Depth” for multiple articles on the same topic – features that users of the desktop version are familiar with.
On small tablets you will see a big top story with a content excerpt at the top, photos and videos in the news below it, then a news feed and Google+ discussions. On large tablets like the iPad, you get the option to explore topics in depth, thumbnails and excerpts for all top stories, as well as editors’ picks in the right sidebar.
“Google News feels even more natural and fluid on tablet devices,” Mayuresh Saoji, the product manager for Google News, said in a blog post. The service gets more than six billion visits per month, but the new look will be available first to U.S. users only over the next few days, he added. You can see if it’s available for you already by pointing your tablet browser to news.google.com.
The tablet optimizations are the latest minor tweaks Google made to its news service this year. In May, Google News saw probably its biggest revamp with bigger images, real-time coverage on hot topics and Google+ comments. There were also several improvements to search within Google News in September, when the service turned 10. Also this year, Google has been negotiating with French and German publishers that want to charge the search company for indexing their stories on Google News.