WebProNews

Hi Andy,
 
I don't think I'm being cynical, especially when you look at my two examples in the article. Both of those sites, Playfuls and SpiritIndia exist only for Google Adwords. Simply click over to the Google New U.S.  front page and you will see 5-10 links to Playfuls at all times. This site is definately gaming Google News U.S.  in some way.

In terms of mainstream non U.S. sites writing about local U.S. based stories such as Paris Hilton ... it's the location on the Google News U.S. front page that is the problem to me. When you have 5-10 of the largest headlines on Google News linking to clearly local U.S. news  written by sources in Asia or the Middle East, it seems a bit odd to me ... sorry.

My point is, aren't there any news sites on the scene of these stories. For instance, TMZ.com should be the top link covering the latest Paris Hilton or Britney Spears story ... not Aljazeera, Xinhua, or Playfuls.

Don't forget this is Google ... people assume the top links on story groups to be the most relevant link to an article.

By the way, I'm a fan of many non-U.S. news sources, both mainsteam and blogs. I see this as a Google News algorithm issue.

Rich Ord
Publisher of WebProNews
CEO, iEntry, Inc.