Suite101.com now has a facility to have its newsworthy articles indexed by Google News searches. This gives the articles an immediacy and exposure not otherwise available.
Suite101: Content and News
The professed aim of Suite101 is to provide articles with evergreen content, that is, content that will always stay live because of its constant appeal. This is attested by a list of its most popular articles on the site's homepage, several of which were written two or three years ago.
Now, Suite101 has recently been accredited to supply articles that could be included in the Google News index. Articles naturally having a timely newsworthy content can now be marked by their authors as "news", allowing the work to be found quickly through Google News.
It is the Editors' intent that news reporting should not replace long term content. Suite101 is well respected for the quality of its evergreen journalism, written by qualified writers to high editorial standards. It remains to be seen, however, whether writers will shift their own foci from their evergreen subject matter to current events. Suite standards still apply to news articles: they must be at least 400 words, and therefore will often contain some background (evergreen) material.
Finding articles on Suite101.com
There is nothing on Suite101's homepage that indicates it is an on-line magazine, but it is! Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the 20 sections of writing. Each of these sections has sub-sections and sub-sub-sections containing articles of like-content. One can browse the main sections by clicking on the section title, or by selecting the section from the pull-down menu in the top left-hand corner of the homepage. The section page gives the Section Editor responsible for content, a list of newly published articles, and a list of sub-sections for browsing.
There are four select offerings on the homepage: Today's Articles (in the upper right-hand corner); Editor's Choice (as stated on the site, "Most importantly, an Editor's Choice article has an "aha" value or a "wow" factor. The editor has recognized that the writer is presenting a unique view on a subject or is writing on an interesting topic that is especially useful to readers."); Popular Articles (determined by the number of hits); and Recommended Articles (those for which readers have ticked the "Recommend this article" box).
Also on the homepage are two search mechanisms: an unlabeled search bar at the upper right, with a pull-down menu; and a "what interests you?" search box in the center left of the page. For both of these, you must choose whether to search for a Writer or an Article. Take care when searching for a Writer to see their URL in the search results among all the ads! Clicking on the URL will take you to the Writer's personal page, which lists all the articles they have mounted on Suite.
Suite101 articles tagged as news can be accessed at news.suite101.com/. Despite the listing of twenty or so sections of content on Suite's homepage, there is not one yet listed as "News", but the above URL will take one to a page labeled "News & Current Events". Searching for "News" under the Article search brings up a different listing. All news articles still appear in their own content section, but when they are accessed there, there is no indication whether they have been indexed by Google News.
Gina Barnes - A retired academic of anthropology, archaeology, geology, and Japanese Studies, with other avid interests....
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