WebProNews

While Google News and its mechanistic approach to headlines has been very popular, it seems even more people prefer services from Yahoo and AOL.

Yahoo News had the best numbers in the most recent NetRatings figures with over 23 million unique visitors in July, according to figures cited in a Search Engine Watch article.

But in a bit of a surprise, AOL News, a downright silent entity when compared to the voluminous media coverage of Google, had over 16 million visitors. Google News? 6.7 million and third place.

How did this happen? Maybe with a little help from some extra content for particular stories. AOL News has a Newsroom section, where editors place certain articles and give them a little multimedia boost to enhance their placement. And being a unit of Time Warner certainly helps AOL find videos and photos a bit easier, too.

AOL, with its push to becoming a portal and focusing its attentions on broadband users, makes icons indicating additional multimedia content available next to stories whenever it can. News sites like CBS News, MSNBC, and CNN have been ramping up video content for stories they cover.

With users demanding news coverage on their terms and not a network's, providers like AOL have been moving to fulfill those requests. AOL seems to have the numbers to show its approach is working.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.