How do I add custom searches to Google News?

Glad you liked my teleseminar, first off. Indeed, regular readers of Ask Dave Taylor might be interested in attending another teleseminar I'm doing this Wednesday, the 2nd of November, with "The Blog Squad" as part of their Conversations with Experts series, entitled How To Grow Your Business with Google. (you will need to register to attend, though it's free)

Okay. So. Let's have a look at Google News so I can show you how to use it to keep track of news and events in your own market segment.

First step is to go to the site, at news.google.com. On this page you'll notice near the top right the following:

Click on this link, and you'll see a list of all the current sections on the page, along with the ability to create new ones:

The link we're interested in is on the bottom right, Add a custom section. Click on that and you'll get to the spot where you can add custom keywords or search patterns for Google News to apply when it searches its 4500+ news sources:

I have custom sections on "business blogging", for example, and even a more sophisticated one on "(marketing|business|corporate) ethics" since both of those are of interest to me and my audience. Create a few custom patterns -- you can always go back and change them later -- and specify how many stories you want shown on your custom page, then go back to your Google News home page.

Now you should see all the standard sections, followed by your own custom sections with news specific to your interest, industry focus, marketplace, or whatever else you've specified. Easy!

A bonus tip too: once you have your Google News customized for your desires, you can easily duplicate that configuration on other computers you run (or share it with your friends or colleagues) by clicking on the new Share your customized news with a friend link on the very bottom of the page. The resultant URL is fairly long and ugly, but works great.

Hope that helps you start to get more out of the Google News service.