In 12 May, 2008, there was an earthquake in Wenchuan, China. Actually, at that moment, i was in China and the whole country and people were astonished at this horrible earthquake and paid all the attention to Wenchuan. As a Chinese, I really felt sad and sympathetic for this catastrophe. Compared with the former  unexpected crises that happened before, the information spread as quickly as possible across the country and the world.

During those days, the national and local TV channels played the programmes nearly all about the latest information of the earthquake such as death toll, the road conditions and what resource was urgently needed. Although the traditional media spread the news as soon as possible, it was still slower than the Twitter (out of China for Twitter was blocked in China) and chinese microblog.

In this crisis, the public’s power made people together and helped the victims immediately. Once someone has any information about the earthquake, they would tweet it or post a status and everyone could know that. That information is really the “latest”. Actually, microblogs didn’t just play a role as a stage to spread the information, but also give victims more opportunities to find their missing families or friends. That’s what the traditional media is hard to realize.

And also, one feature of the microblog is that all the information is emotional and personal. We can feel the agony and pains they were suffering. We are together! And another feature is that nothing could be hidden on the microblog, i think. Because the victims are telling their true stories. For example, after the earthquake happened, the whole nation raised the money for the rescue, food, tents, etc. If the money and the goods didn’t give the victims, we would know. It’s a stage to censor the government to take the real actions.

So, if there is no microblog, there may be more victims. We know we can’t depend on government all the time, we should show our power and make our efforts. I’m a Chinese, we can mostly feel the microblog’s importance role in this event, for information is such public and clear, which is a great advance for the whole nation. And we are also relieved at the government’s action of publishing the information. It’s way better than their past performances.

At last, hope all the victims rest in peace. And the survivors can have a brand new start and a better life.

Google News was created by Krishna Bharat in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. And the service was launched with 4000 news sources in September, 2002, but was in beta until 2006. It is improving and developing all the time. Now Google news may be our first choice to search for daily news and information.

Actually, Google news is not the first company to tackle news researches. But the competitors, AlltheWeb.com is now a Yahoo! operated site, while the lesser-known Newsseer.com is full of advertisement now. The reason why Google news still exists is that it changes with the society develops. Apparently, difference can be told through a screenshot of AlltheWeb.com below.

What does Google news do? It constantly updates news from 4000 different sources home and abroad. When you open the website, you will see what’s happening in globe. Google news doesn’t host content; it just provides links to publications’ pages. There are no “human” editors – service is offered by computer algorithms without human intervention. It sends e-mail alerts on various keyword topics, too.

What mentioned above are some regular things that a news search engine should do. It is personalization service that makes Google news more individual. “With this service, you pick the story that interests you and then pick the news sources” vs. “pick a source and then pick the story that interests you.” – Marissa Mayer (Google Product Manager). If you don’t want to see news about business, you just need move that tag to trash. Moreover, news is ranked by freshness, credibility of the source, and number of sources publishing a story related to the news. According to most people’s habits – only read the stories on the first page, it is convenient to find what is needed. Besides, they’ve added the +1 function, so you can share the news articles you enjoy with your friends. This function is very useful for social network becomes a gradually dominant role in spreading information nowadays.

“This product is about innovation,” Marissa Mayer said. As she said, Google news changes our approach to news and information in a way, which makes it more convenient for us. There are tons of news on the Internet, but perhaps what you need is only a little. Thus, Google News is your news, your personal news indeed.