Google created some buzz (pardon the pun) this weekend at the Online News Association conference in Boston by announcing a new “standout tag” designed to give Google News love to the outlets who deserve it.
You identify your best original work by including the tag in the HTML header (but no more than seven times a week!), and Google just might give it a “Featured” label on the Google News home page or in search results. You can also use the tag when linking out to exceptional source material by others, with no limits.
A lot of people at the conference who heard about the tag missed the part about the limit, and thought the whole idea was ridiculous. They assumed most publishers would simply apply the tag to every story. Of course they would, which is why the limit is essential. I think it will be obeyed, because we saw with brands who tried to get in early on Google+ that Google doesn’t mess around with those who disregard its ground rules.
My understanding is that only the American version of Google News will recognize the tag for now, as it’s still in an experimental monitoring phase. Canada must wait.
