On a recent WebmasterWorld thread, a member asks how the multitude of identical news stories in Google News are handled.

Question: how does the dupe issue effect google giving me credit? The articles are identical but I am not sure how the templates or their presumed trust factor will effect them.

He monitors the addition of the numerous news stories and sees that they are initially all indexed. However, he then notices that after a period of time, those other pages got moved to the supplemental results.

These findings were supported by another WebmasterWorld user, who wrote:

Initally they will all be indexed. Then some will fall out of google entirely, many will be go supplemental. Then all will drop to low pr...

In one of the Google News Support pages, Google says that the news articles are weighed in by its algorithm and relies on "collective judgment of news organizations to determine which stories are most deserving of inclusion and prominence on the News homepage." I assume that all other pages are supplemental.

Discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

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