Google News seems to be testing placing a header above news sources in the Google News follow interface, that says "how these stories are ranked." I personally cannot replicate it, but some are able to see it.
Punit posted a screenshot of this on Mastodon and it reads, "How these stories are ranked." It then goes on to say:
These news articles are ranked based on their quality, originality of content, freshness of content, and where permitted based on your settings, your previous activity and purchases within Google News, and activity in other Google products. Google may have a license agreement with some of these publishers, but it has no impact on the ranking of results.
I believe the learn more link goes here.
Here is that screenshot:
Here is what I see when I go to that page (please click "follow" while you are there).
I am not sure why Google is placing this ranking disclaimer on this page.
Forum discussion at Mastodon.
Update: Some clarity from Google on this:
It appears to be a notice we show in EU countries and links to this page https://t.co/QIfL3YodsX
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 5, 2024
Google wrote there, "Some publishers could have a contractual agreement with Google to allow licensed use of their article content; this doesn't affect article ranking. Your having a subscription to a paid content provider does raise that publisher's content ranking."
