David Dalka brought this to my attention where the Google News blog says they are linking to original stories, from the source. This is total bull$$$$.

Google News does not always link to source articles.

Look at tonight. Search on “social web.” ZDNet is there with a story about the bill of rights that I helped author. But where’s the source document? Not there.

Oh, so only “news sources” will get linked to, right? Yeah, and who makes up that fine distinction?

What’s funny is that Google’s own blog post (er, original source material) on this topic doesn’t get linked to.

But it gets worse from there. David Dalka writes that the removal of duplicate material from Google News, thanks to a new deal with the Associated Press, is causing tons of bad PR for Google. He covers the topic better than I could.

Google:

1. It’s time to include blogs in Google News. It’s ridiculous that there’s a news organization that reprints my blog, which means my words get onto Google News, but not as posted here on my blog.
2. It’s time you include MORE sources, not fewer. Yes, we know Associated Press gets reprinted all over the world but I like being able to track an AP story and see where it gets reprinted. You should still let us see that.
3. You should absolutely link to the original source material that all these journalists are talking about. ESPECIALLY if it comes off of a blog (as David demonstrates, the lack of blog inclusion really makes Google News suck).

Until then, I’d highly recommend checking out TechMeme and Memeorandum as an alternative to Google News. TechMeme already includes the original source document on the bill of rights conversation.

Any news site that doesn’t link to ALL the original source material will look really crappy, especially in comparison to TechMeme and Memeorandum.