Mark on the deleted paragraph from from Google Blog: “This kind of revisionist history is unacceptable, regardless of who does it. If you don’t want it saved for all time, don’t publish it on the Internet. Putting blog on the top of the page does not absolve you of all responsibility.”
Jack Shafer: “The Google News page exceeds every editor's dream—to produce a first-rate publication without the meddling interference of reporters—by making the editors themselves extraneous as well. Instead of assigning humans to gather and present the news, Google News delegates the task to software developed over the last nine months by five Google engineers (presumably all human).”
I like the idea behind Google News, which I've known about for some time and have used to search news stories (especially when someone said "hey, did you hear that..." and I hadn't). I liked the older design, however (which was very similar to Kottke's proposed redesign). The new design now requires scanning horizontally as well as vertically. And the photos make it a little to busy for my liking. I'll probably warm to it, but not soon.