WebProNews

Google announced late last night that they have launched seven non-english editions of their extremely popular Google News service.

The news sites all have a similar appearance, but they are in seven different languages. They also are focused on the geographic region they serve.

It is a logical move on the part of Google and I expect literally a hundred or more geo-focused versions of Google News to launch over the next few years. This would include new english language versions, but serving countries such as the U.K. and Australia.

Here are the new versions just launched:

- Argentina
- Chile
- Canada Franais
- Mxico
- sterreich
- Schweiz
- Suisse

It's obvious that Google sees much of their future revenue growth coming from expanding their existing search services to the rest of the world.

One interesting note, Michael Krantz of the Google Blog Team who announced the expansions used the phrase, "franchise operations". Does this mean they are partnerships with others? Probably not, but I'm interested in finding this out.

Rich Ord is the CEO of iEntry, Inc. which publishes over 200 websites and email newsletters. Rich also publishes his blog WebProBlog which focuses on internet business and marketing trends.