Google news ditches blogs over accuracy?

The Sunday Times ran an item about the growing behemoth that is Google this weekend Google: How big can it get?
What was interesting was a section in a side bar about Google News. It went on to say:

"One potential flaw is that the most recent stories are presented first, rather than the best or most authoritative versions. Google is working on an algorithm to rank the credibility of news organisations, to ensure that (for example) stories from Times Online rank ahead of bloggers and poorly funded newsletters."

So it seems Google too has been vexed by the trustworthiness of material online, and has come to the conclusion that the size of the media organisation equates to the credibility of what it writes. However, think back to the New York Times debacle this time last year, as covered here by CNN, and you may conclude that argument is be flawed.

Theres been much debate about the Google algorithm and how fair it is in prioritising content, the fact that its operation is mysterious seems to feed the speculation, and there have been studies on whether it introduces political bias.One of the conclusions is that there appears to be a trade-off between breadth of coverage and depth.
If you want you can view a live breakdown analysis of the sources used in the Google News front page.

It remains to be seen if Google News does rewrite the algorithm to rank for credibility, however if they do, were unlikely to know the workings behind it.

Matt