The Google News API was shut down in May 2011, yet many people still search for it today. Some search for this API because they want to add more news data feeds to their data-driven application or automated solution while others may have used it back in the day. For those looking for a better news API, you’re in luck — today, you can find news APIs with far more features and functionality, like advanced filters and article sentiment. Once you see what a modern news API can do, you may forget about the Google News API completely.
Why the search for a news API?
While many people search for the Google News API, even more search for a news API in general.
Why are so many people looking for a news API? Because a good one can help:
- Businesses — Businesses can leverage news API data to analyze the market and keep track of market trends, using that timely information to stay on top of the competition. They can also use news data to monitor consumer sentiment, gaining a better understanding of what consumers think of their brand or products.
- Researchers — Researchers rely on relevant, timely data to produce high-quality work. A good news API can help researchers quickly gather pertinent information that they can analyze with AI models or AI-driven tools. A news API can help them discover valuable insights that drive advances in academic or professional research.
- Developers — Innovation is crucial in the technology world. Developers must follow industry trends and best practices — from API and app design to 5G technology and large language models (LLMs). Developers can use a news API to keep track of industry trends and gain the knowledge they need to build better apps and services.
- Publishers — Publishing is a highly competitive field where success relies on providing unique, relevant, and timely content. A reliable news API can give publishers relevant news information from multiple sources worldwide, allowing them to provide readers with more diverse stories and thoughtful analysis.
Many people want to find and use a news API, but they don’t know which one to choose.
What should you look for in a news API?
The qualities you need in a news API depend on how you use it. For example, researchers may only need a limited number of API calls and queries for specific projects. So, a free community-version news API could work well. Developers working on small projects might choose free datasets to obtain news information. If your work or business depends on a steady flow of news data, a commercial news API with access to millions of news sources worldwide would work best.
The Google News API returned news articles based on its algorithm at the time and not their relevance to the user. The search results were also limited — they included a title, a link to the article, and a text excerpt for each article. You could miss critical context, mentions, or insights if an API only returns excerpts of news articles instead of the full text.
Regardless of the use case, you should look for an API that has these five qualities:
#1 Comprehensive
You should look for a comprehensive news API — one that aggregates news data from multiple sources across different regions and provides data in a wide range of languages. With a comprehensive news API, you can access many kinds of news in one place and the most up-to-date and accurate information available.
#2 Structured and machine-readable
You should look closely at the news data the API provides. Is the data structured and machine-readable? If not, generating actionable insights becomes more demanding and expensive. These characteristics impact how well platforms and applications can use the data. Plus, if the news data isn’t structured and machine-readable, you’ll have difficulty scaling the data for your application or business.
#3 Relevant and timely
If you need news data for a business application or automated solution, you’ll want a news API that provides relevant, up-to-date news information. Certain companies — e.g., financial analysis, reputation monitoring, and media intelligence — must stay on top of the latest news or events. They need to see the most recent news and mentions for specific brands to deliver accurate and relevant information to their customers. A real-time news API will give you the most up-to-date news.
#4 Noise-free
Some news APIs include elements in the data you don’t need. These elements are noise that you must spend time removing. This noise may include:
- Raw code (e.g., HTML, JavaScript)
- Advertisements
- Navigation links
- Unadjusted date formats (date formats are not adjusted to regional variations)
- Boilerplate text
- Duplicate content
You should look for a news API that filters out noise, ensuring you get the critical data you need. The API should be able to sort through irrelevant and unstructured items, providing only meaningful data for your application or automated platform.
#5 Historical
While it is critical for a news API to provide timely data, it should also deliver historical news data. Historical news data allows AI models and analytics platforms to analyze and understand long-term trends. For example, you need massive amounts of historical web data to train AI models like LLMs. Financial analysis platforms need real-time and historical finance-related news information to generate trend reports and forecasts.
You need to look for a news API that provides a continuous stream of news data instead of one where you get finite datasets derived from basic web scraping services. A limited news API can work well for some projects, but most require continuous, adjustable, and scalable news data.
If you find a news API with all these qualities, you’re off to a great start!
Still longing for the Google News API? We’ve got something better
Maybe Google will come out with a new Google News API someday. In the meantime, the Webz.io News API has everything you need for your news-powered project or automated solution. Our news API provides structured, noise-free, enriched news data feeds from millions of sites and in 170+ languages. It includes many critical features to help you generate relevant insights at scale, such as:
- Real-time news data – Get the latest news information as soon as it becomes available.
- Smart extraction – The API automatically classifies the who, what, where, and when of every article, translating them into entities machines can understand and analyze.
- Article categorization – The API scans web pages and categorizes them according to industry standards like IPTC.
- Article sentiment – Get news feeds on any topic based on the sentiment expressed in the articles — positive, negative, or neutral.
- Filters – You can filter the data based on specific criteria, such as language, location, keywords, topics, and sentiment.
- Machine learning – Includes advanced features like sentiment analysis and trend prediction as well as customizable ML models.
Our News API offers all these features and more, and you can experiment with our news data for free with the Webz.io News API Lite. The lite version gives you limited access to our vast repository of global news content, including up to 30 days of historical news data.
Move forward with a modern news API
The Google News API was impressive for its time, but today’s businesses, especially those developing automated data-driven solutions, need a modern news API with advanced capabilities. Plus, a rapidly increasing number of companies now rely on LLMs to power their platforms and applications. A news API can help boost the results of automated solutions and optimize LLM data preprocessing. Don’t look back nostalgically to the news API that was but instead move forward with the innovative news API you could have today.
Want to learn more about how a news API can boost the results of your automated solution or application? Schedule a chat with one of our web data experts.
