Google releases “Living Stories” code

“You are reading a standard-form news article, and when new
information comes to light, the piece you’re reading might just be
referenced in a follow-up — but it won’t be displayed in
context or be easy to navigate. However, if Google’s Living Stories
experiment takes off following the release of its code, that won’t
always be the case.

“Along with The New York Times and The Washington Post, Google
worked on developing a new prototype for displaying news
dynamically. The Living Stories project, announced in December of
2009, was an experiment on how to present news coverage online in a
dynamic format rather than the staid and unchanging single-story
per page mode. The project ran for about two months, and has been
highly successful. According to the Google team that worked on the
project, the feedback received has been extremely positive —
with 75% of the people reporting that they preferred the Living
Stories format. More importantly to publishers, who strive to keep
time on site as high as possible, the readers spent “a significant
amount of time exploring stories.”

“The problem with the online news

“For all of the advances and changes brought about by online
publishing, the way that news is reported online has changed
remarkably little from print days. The speed of publishing has
changed, and readers are able to access information on new and
exciting devices: But the actual layout of a news story has
remained more or less static.”

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