What Are News Stories and How Do They Differ from Other Types of Articles in the Google Discover Feed?

The Google Discover feed combines two types of content. The first type appears inthe "Headlines" box and is internally referred to as 'News Stories' by Google. These are essentially the same articles that appear on the Google News homepage and in the 'News' top stories section of the search results. These stories are not selected by the Google Discover algorithm but rather by Google's general 'News' algorithm. To be featured in Google News, the Top stories box in search results, or the Headlines section of Google Discover, publishers must be whitelisted. Only a very small number of websites are whitelisted to publish in these highly sensitive areas (political and economics) of Google. We have compiled a list of publishers whitelisted in the news stories, which you can check here.

The second type includes general stories that do not originate from the Google News algorithm but rather from the Google Discover algorithm. For this category, publishers can optimize their content with our tips to improve their visibility in Discover. However, even in this category, there are two specific areas—finance and health—that are relatively exclusive and reserved for whitelisted publishers.

Do you want to know if a publisher is whitelisted for each of these three 'walled garden' categories (news, health, finance)? Just take a look at the "Domain analysis" info in our dashboard, and you'll find out!