Google News: "We're not content creators. We're computer scientists."

Nathan Stoll, Google News Product Manager, took the stage at the 13th World Editors Forum in Moscow to reassure the world's press that his employer presents news organizations with many opportunities to reach a wider public.

For those not familiar with Google News, Stoll explained the way in which it works; providing related content from numerous publishers in blocks on its homepage. In this way, the reader can see how many publisers are covering a certain story and select their news reading according to what's hot at the moment.

He want on to explain that Google News offers a personalization tool that allows readers to dig deeper, to find niche material in which they might be interested that otherwise would be hard to find. 

But Stoll emphasized that the news aggregator is "not trying to be all things to all people" and "not trying to have an editorial voice." In fact, said Stolle, Google News encourages readers to read numerous publications so that they get a wide variety of views on a certain topic. The way the site is designed facilitates this process.

Google feels that the Internet opens up huge opportunities for publishers and that its aggregator portends to compliment news organizations online. Google News even has deals with several publishers to drive people to subscription sites with the hope of increasing their online revenues. It tries to generate new traffic for publishers by driving readers to websites. If publishers continue to produce quality content, those readers will keep coming back. .

Stoll concluded by saying "We want to establish symbiotic relationships (with publishers) where we can add value. We want to make readers become more passionate about news."

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