Google have at last decided to update their News pages in the UK.
This particular revamp was first rolled out in the US in May this year and includes Google+ integration and "realtime coverage".
Here is what one of the top stories looked like when I checked the Google News pages this morning:
What is really interesting looking at this screengrab is the prominence given to the Daily Mail's Google+ post, which takes up far more room than most of other results. It will be interesting to see how various news outlets will look to exploit an obvious opportunity for an increased visibility opened up by this update.
If you click on the "See realtime coverage" button on the left, you are then shown a whole page of news articles related to this story. The top list refreshes automatically with the most recent stories. It is then followed by a list of "in-depth" articles, "live updating" posts (which are essentially live blogs covering the given topic) and lastly by "opinion" articles.
To the right of this list of articles, in the top corner, you'll be able to see posts from Google+ users who have commented on this news story. If you already have an account, then you'll be able to post your comment here and then. If not, then you will be shown a box telling you to "upgrade" to Google+.
As mentioned, this update has been live in the States for a few months now and has probably taken a lot longer than most of us expected to arrive on these shores. It also shows how hard the search giant is working on pushing their social network to the front of almost anything they're doing right now.
I still think though that the news results will benefit hugely from the inclusion of Twitter posts, as that is where news stories usually break and where most of the debates originate. Google may hope that Google+ will become such a place on day, but that is certainly going to take a while, some would say never.