Google has just launched a new real-time data product; and this one's for journalists

A year after Google announced its $300 million news initiative focussed on funding for independent journalism efforts, it announced the launch of its new real-time data product for journalists.

Google has just launched a new real-time data product; and this one's for journalists

Monday March 25, 2019,

3 min Read

Google, on Monday, announced the launch of Real-Time Content Insights (RCI) - its real-time data product for journalists. The product focusses on telling publishers what is happening on their site in real time, and helps them identify news stories that could possibly attract more readers.


A report by TechCruch said the launch of Real-Time Content Insights comes a year after Google announced its $300-million news initiative. The initiative includes funding for Google's independent journalism efforts, and different products developed by the search giant.


Google had earlier announced the launch of News Consumer Insights (NCI), which is already said to be in use by Business Insider, Conde Nast and BuzzFeed. The NCI takes data collected by Google Analytics, and gives insights to make it more useful for publishers.


Google Dashboard

Image credit: TechCrunch


Also read: Google announces free AI lessons, with 'Learn with Google AI'



A TechCrunch report said the product will help publishers understand different audience segments, and if they are likely to become paying subscribers. It turns raw data into actionable insights and business intelligence.


RCI, is a new tool built on the NCI product. The tool tells publishers what is happening on their site at any particular moment, and helps them identify the right kind of trending stories that can attract more readers.


While the original NCI data product was focussed on business and audience development, the RCI is primarily focussed on the editorial side. Helping the publishers understand what is trending on the site, what will get traction, and what is falling off.


Google

Google is believed to be offering this product particularly to smaller newsrooms that don't have that too many resources, and aren't data-savvy.


In a TechCrunch report Amy Adams Harding, Google's Head of Analytics and Revenue Optimisation and Head of Publisher Development said the search giant aims to help smaller publishing houses by developing tools that can act as support mechanisms.


The data by RCI is represented in the form of an image-heavy dashboard that shows a publisher the number of readers on a particular story at any point in time. It also shows how many views the story has received in 30 minutes.


The product also lets one see how well the publisher's site is doing as compared with a normal day's traffic, and breaks the traffic sources based on referral and geography. The RCI data also shows current trending topics on Twitter and Google.



Also read: This Google service will shut down on April 2: Here’s everything you need to know