For details about what all this involves, read the Google News Release re Google News Lab for details, or check out today's coverage in TechCrunch or Engadget.
Google News Lab: The Google - Journalism Hookup
For many folk, I suppose the idea of Google "collaborating" with the media is one very skeery proposition. It's not that it doesn't give me pause, too. Consider that second option in the definition of "collaborating" as defined by Google:
1) work jointly on an activity, especially to produce or create something. "he collaborated with a distinguished painter on the designs" synonyms: co-operate, join forces, team up, band together, work together, participate, combine, ally; More
(2) cooperate traitorously with an enemy. "the indigenous elite who collaborated with the colonizers" synonyms: collude, conspire, fraternize, co-operate, consort, sympathize; informal be in cahoots; "they collaborated with the enemy"
And if you're not aware of how invasive and worrying Google's actions can be, just read the post today over at Vodkapundit about his concerns over a Google notice that Google is eavesdropping via your gadget's microphone. Eek!!!
However, I'm not focusing on Google being a part of a growing Big Brother society; instead, I wanted to share something I noticed in their promotion of the new Google News Lab to journalists and media publishers all over the world.
They've included Google Plus in their package.
That's right. Google Plus is one of a handful of tools being promoted in Google's Distribution component of the new Google News Lab (the others being YouTube, GoogleNews, and GooglePlay).
GooglePlus is Part of the Google News Lab: Good News for Google+
Other distribution tools are listed on the Distribute page, but they aren't being promoted in the pretty visual page describing the "powerful" tools that Google offers the media in getting news stories out to readers.
For those that are wondering if and when Google+ is going to be executed by the Powers that Be, here's one more reason to think that Google Plus lives on, at least for now.