Fast Google News scraper with structured source rows for keywords, publishers, topics, local news, URLs, alerts, and Full Coverage stories. Returns clean rows with dates, publishers, direct URLs, images, 100+ backfill, new-article alerts, descriptions, entities, and best-effort full text.
Replaced the visible workflow-mode selector with a simpler source-first form: users fill one source input and the actor routes each line; collect toggles stay API-only.
Made Extra Data default-on: publisher descriptions/authors, best-effort full text, and entity detection are enabled for richer first-run rows and can be switched off for cheaper feed-only runs.
Reworked proxy routing for speed and reliability: direct requests are hedged with selected-country residential sessions, residential has no internal fallback cap, global residential is used as a safety route, and Google News decode retries get fresh sessions.
Fixed mixed-source maxItems underfills by redistributing unused per-source capacity when one source has too few Google News results.
Hid always-on data switches for direct URLs, thumbnails, Full Coverage links, and social cards so the visible form now focuses on the Extra Data toggles users may disable for faster runs.
Reworked the visible source UI into official Apify schemaBased source rows with a source-type selector and value field for search, publishers, topics, local news, Google News URLs, and Full Coverage stories.
Moved the main source input out of collapsible sections so the primary source rows are visible immediately on first open in Apify Console.
Simplified the public README for Apify buyers by removing developer-only API alias details and keeping the copy focused on visible workflows and clean outputs.
Replaced the outdated Data Quality Options table with an accurate default-data section that matches the visible Extra Data toggles.
Removed confusing proxy and monitoring jargon from the public README and shortened the SEO description to Apify's recommended length range.
Reduced first-open form clutter by removing the duplicated Sources heading and moving dataset marketing copy out of the input description.
Renamed the visible Monitoring section to New Article Alerts and documented the Apify Task/Schedule workflow directly in the section description.
Fixed a duplicated Extra Data section by ensuring only visible fields can start input sections.
Replaced visible filter string lists with compact textarea fields while keeping the old array inputs as API-only aliases.
Kept searchMode, runMode, and contentMode as hidden API compatibility aliases while making the normal Apify UI work without mode selection.
Added a source-form compatibility layer so the new visible fields map cleanly to the existing keyword, publisher, local, topic, URL, Full Coverage, top headlines, and monitoring internals.
Simplified the visible form by hiding proxy, retry, concurrency, output-mode, and low-level Google parameters while keeping them available for API users.
Added a middle Publisher descriptions enrichment mode (contentMode: "descriptions" plus extractDescriptions aliases) for richer snippets and article metadata without storing full article bodies.
Made the default JSON output cleaner by keeping diagnostic quality/status fields out of normal rows unless explicitly requested.
Made Publisher feed usable with plain names and domains such as Reuters, CNN, BBC, and reuters.com, not only Google News publication URLs/IDs.
Added date-window expansion for publisher/domain runs above 100 results, matching the large keyword backfill behavior where Google News search RSS supports it.
Added optional Full Coverage X/Twitter card extraction (includeSocialPosts) so story pages can return social_post rows when Google News exposes them.
Fixed API-only workflow aliases so startUrls, publisherUrls, fullCoverageUrls, topics, locations, and monitoring inputs infer the right workflow without requiring searchMode; the example OpenAI keyword is no longer mixed into those runs.
Added first-class Publisher feed and Full Coverage workflows in the Apify input UI, including visible publisherInputs and fullCoverageInputs fields plus API support for publisher/story IDs.
Added publication_url source typing so publisher-feed rows are labeled clearly in output instead of being hidden under generic Google News URL rows.
Repositioned the actor around clean Google News rows with direct URLs, thumbnails, source context, alerts, default-on publisher-page enrichment, and clear controls for disabling heavier Extra Data when speed or cost matters more.
Improved the first dataset table so users immediately see title, publisher, domain, publication time, article URL, image, and search source instead of a sparse technical preview.
Added Google News HTML card snippet enrichment for cases where RSS descriptions are empty but the visible result card contains a useful summary.
Simplified input form wording for first runs, monitoring alerts, volume controls, speed/enrichment presets, full text, and advanced search controls while keeping user-facing capabilities available and proxy controls hidden.
Reduced the default first-run volume to 20 articles per query/source for faster, cheaper, more predictable trial runs.
Fixed large backfill planning so maxArticles above 100 stops preparing extra daily slices once the source target is reached. A 120-result metadata run now decodes about 120 candidates instead of hundreds of unused items.
Fixed predefined Topic feeds by using current Google News /rss/topics/... URLs and optimized topic-page image parsing so small topic runs no longer hang on large Google News HTML pages.
Fixed Top headlines image enrichment so the HTML index uses the Google News homepage instead of trying to parse the RSS XML response.
2026-06-07
Reworked the Apify input UI into a workflow-first form with emoji mode labels, clearer section copy, and examples for search, monitoring, topics, local news, URLs, and custom runs.
Restored a polished emoji-led README and storage labels while keeping the product copy focused on user workflows instead of internal implementation details.
Exposed important user-facing controls in the form: 100+ result expansion, total run limits, dedupe, full-text limit, source filters, advanced Google filters, and concurrency.
Added API support for a single topic / topicCategory alias.
Made standard output clean by default and moved internal/debug fields to advanced.
Added runMode presets: fast, balanced, complete, and custom.
Added direct scrapedAt, region, and language fields so standard output no longer needs raw metadata.
Added run-level health.status and warnings to the OUTPUT summary.
Removed extra dataset tabs so the Storage preview opens as one clean Articles table instead of several confusing views.
Added visible topHeadlines and locations inputs for top stories and local Google News feeds.
Exposed large-run, dedupe, Google filter, and concurrency controls in the input UI while keeping proxy handling managed internally and not user-configurable.
Redesigned the input UI around a simple searchMode selector like the strongest Google News actors, with low-level retry tuning kept API-only.
Hid outputMode from the input UI so users see one clean default dataset; simple and advanced remain API-only compatibility modes.
Added first-class Monitoring mode with persistent seen-article history, monitorName, resetMonitor, and onlyNewArticles support for scheduled alerts and daily digests.
Added richer publisher-page metadata in full-text mode: article published/modified timestamps, section, tags, and publisher organization name.
2026-06-06
Added outputMode with simple, standard, and advanced dataset modes.
Added per-item quality and status fields: contentQualityScore, extractionStatus, urlDecodeStatus, articleFetchStatus, wordCount, isLikelyPaywalled, isConsentPage, and extractionError.
Added stoppedReason and availability counters to the run-level OUTPUT summary.
Canonicalized Google News Full Coverage URLs and stripped noisy followup query values.
Added storyUrls and fullCoverageUrls API aliases for Full Coverage inputs.
Improved Google News thumbnail matching for -p-df attachment URLs.
Updated Apify input and dataset schemas so quality/status fields are visible in table views.
