Google on Thursday, September 9 announced that it is adding support for four new languages - Kannada, Marathi, Tamil as well as Telugu - in addition to English, Hindi in dedicated News Showcase panels in Google News and on Discover. "In May, we announced the expansion of Google News Showcase, our online experience and licensing program to support news organisations and readers, to India. With the addition of these new languages and new partners today, we now have onboarded more than 50 partners representing more than 70 publications," the search engine giant said in a statement.

The firm said it is working closely with a number of News Showcase partners to provide users free access to select paywalled stories. This feature give users the opportunity to get to know content they might not otherwise have access to. Google said that its investment of $1 billion over the next three years towards news partnerships and for Google News Showcase helps support publications to produce, distribute and explain essential information to users in new ways.

"News Showcase panels give publishers the ability to tell important news stories together with context and links to additional stories. Panels also feature recognisable branding so users can easily find and identify trusted news organisations," Brad Bender, VP Product Management, News said recently.

Google in May had announced that it has rolled out News Showcase in India with 30 news publishers including national, regional and local news organisations like Indo Asian News Service (IANS), ABP LIVE, India TV, Zee News, Amar Ujala, Deccan Herald, Punjab Kesari, The Tribune, Kalinga TV and others.

“The aim is to support news organisations and news publishers to curate high quality content on Google's News and Discover platforms in the country, connecting readers with the news they need, especially in these tough COVID-19 times,” Google had said in a statement.