Google News in Philippines Launched; First in Southeast Asia

Philippines – September 17, 2008 – Google Inc. today launched Google News in the Philippines, providing 24 million Filipino Internet users the latest local news from more than 4,500 English-language sources, including a wide range of Philippines news outlets. The Philippines is the first country in Southeast Asia to get its own local edition of Google News. Google News for the Philippines is available at http://news.google.com.ph. With this launch there are now 56 regional editions of Google News available in 20 different languages.

Google News is a comprehensive news search service that enables users to easily access a variety of perspectives on up-to-the-minute news by linking to stories from thousands of news outlets around the world. Instead of reading just one article from a single source on a story, Google News users are encouraged to read several articles from a number of different publications, and search for more on any subject they might be interested in.

For example, the top story on Google News Philippines today is the allegations by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that the military is offering cash to civilians in exchange for recovering the bodies of soldiers, through the articles of 95 local and international news outlets. Or, on a lighter note, get the latest update on the upcoming Pacquiao-De La Hoya fight from 98 news articles, currently the top story under the sports section of Google News Philippines.

Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, Product Manager for Google News, said:

“Google News is great for both users and publishers in the Philippines. Our mission is to help Filipino users find the stories they’re looking for as quickly as possible. Google News lets users easily check the most recent headlines from publishers around the world and then read those stories on the publisher’s site. By making it easier for users to search news stories we help more people find more of the content created by Filipino publishers. Stories from publishers that readers already know and love, as well as stories from sources they may never have known existed. Readers get more stories — and publishers get more readers on their site.”

On Google News, users can scan headlines and brief snippets of stories, then click on the headline to be taken directly to the news publisher’s website. By collating articles from numerous different sources in one place, Google makes the news more accessible and more interesting — encouraging people to read more, benefiting users and the news industry as a whole.
Local news organizations who would like to be included in Google News can find information for inclusion in the “Help for Publishers” section (http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/?hl=en) at the bottom of the Google News front page.