| name | google-news |
| description | Google News is a free news aggregator by Google that surfaces headlines from thousands of publishers worldwide. Use this skill to fetch top stories, topic feeds, location-specific news, and keyword searches via the public Google News RSS feeds. No API key or authentication is required.
|
| metadata | {"author":"Outsharp Inc.","version":"0.1.0"} |
| compatibility | {"requirements":["Internet access","Any HTTP client (curl, wget, fetch, requests, etc.)","An XML/RSS parser (or plain-text processing)"],"notes":["All endpoints are fully public — no authentication, API key, or account is needed.","Responses are RSS 2.0 XML.","Google News may rate-limit aggressive polling; use reasonable intervals (≥ 60 s).","Article links redirect through Google; the final destination is the publisher's page.","Feed contents are region- and language-specific; set `hl`, `gl`, and `ceid` accordingly."]} |
| allowed-tools | ["Bash(curl:*)","Bash(wget:*)","Bash(python*:*)","Bash(pip*:*)","Bash(node*:*)","Bash(npx*:*)","Bash(jq:*)","Bash(xmllint:*)"] |
Google News RSS API
Google News is a free news aggregator that collects headlines from thousands of publishers around the world. Google exposes its feeds via public RSS 2.0 endpoints that require no authentication or API key.
Base URL
https://news.google.com/rss
All feed URLs are built by appending paths and query parameters to this base.
Query Parameters
Every feed URL accepts the following query parameters to control region and language:
| Parameter | Required | Description | Example |
|---|
hl | Yes | Interface language / locale code | en-US, fr, de, ja, pt-BR, es-419 |
gl | Yes | Country / geographic location (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2) | US, GB, IN, DE, JP, BR |
ceid | Yes | Compound locale key in the form {gl}:{language} | US:en, GB:en, DE:de, JP:ja, BR:pt-419 |
Important: All three parameters should be consistent. Mismatched values may return unexpected or empty results.
Supported Locations (Validated)
The following locations have been tested and confirmed to return valid RSS feeds (HTTP 200):
| Location | hl | gl | ceid | Example URL |
|---|
| 🇺🇸 United States | en-US | US | US:en | https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en |
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | en-GB | GB | GB:en | https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en |
| 🇮🇳 India | en-IN | IN | IN:en | https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-IN&gl=IN&ceid=IN:en |
| 🇦🇺 Australia | en-AU | AU | AU:en | https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-AU&gl=AU&ceid=AU:en |
| 🇨🇦 Canada | en-CA | CA | CA:en | https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-CA&gl=CA&ceid=CA:en |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | de | DE | DE:de | https://news.google.com/rss?hl=de&gl=DE&ceid=DE:de |
| 🇫🇷 France | fr | FR | FR:fr | https://news.google.com/rss?hl=fr&gl=FR&ceid=FR:fr |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | ja | JP | JP:ja | https://news.google.com/rss?hl=ja&gl=JP&ceid=JP:ja |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | pt-BR | BR | BR:pt-419 | https://news.google.com/rss?hl=pt-BR&gl=BR&ceid=BR:pt-419 |
| 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
Feed Types
1. Top Stories (Headlines)
Returns the current top stories for a given location.
URL pattern:
https://news.google.com/rss?hl={hl}&gl={gl}&ceid={gl}:{lang}
Example — US top stories:
https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
2. Topic Feeds
Returns articles for a specific news topic / section.
URL pattern:
https://news.google.com/rss/topics/{TOPIC_ID}?hl={hl}&gl={gl}&ceid={gl}:{lang}
Known Topic IDs (English, US):
| Topic | Topic ID |
|---|
| World | CAAqJggKIiBDQkFTRWdvSUwyMHZNRGx1YlY4U0FtVnVHZ0pWVXlnQVAB |
| Nation / U.S. | CAAqIggKIhxDQkFTRHdvSkwyMHZNRGxqTjNjU0FtVnVLQUFQAQ |
| Business | CAAqJggKIiBDQkFTRWdvSUwyMHZNRGx6TVdZU0FtVnVHZ0pWVXlnQVAB |
| Technology | CAAqJggKIiBDQkFTRWdvSUwyMHZNRGRqTVhZU0FtVnVHZ0pWVXlnQVAB |
| Entertainment | CAAqJggKIiBDQkFTRWdvSUwyMHZNREpxYW5RU0FtVnVHZ0pWVXlnQVAB |
| Sports | CAAqJggKIiBDQkFTRWdvSUwyMHZNRFp1ZEdvU0FtVnVHZ0pWVXlnQVAB |
| Science | CAAqJggKIiBDQkFTRWdvSUwyMHZNRFp0Y1RjU0FtVnVHZ0pWVXlnQVAB |
| Health | CAAqIQgKIhtDQkFTRGdvSUwyMHZNR3QwTlRFU0FtVnVLQUFQAQ |
Example — Technology news (US):
https://news.google.com/rss/topics/CAAqJggKIiBDQkFTRWdvSUwyMHZNRGRqTVhZU0FtVnVHZ0pWVXlnQVAB?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
Note: Topic IDs are base64-encoded protocol buffer strings. They can differ by language/region. The IDs above are for en-US. To find topic IDs for other locales, inspect the RSS link on the Google News website for that locale.
3. Keyword / Search Feeds
Returns articles matching a search query.
URL pattern:
https://news.google.com/rss/search?q={query}&hl={hl}&gl={gl}&ceid={gl}:{lang}
Query modifiers:
| Modifier | Description | Example |
|---|
+ or space | AND (default) | q=artificial+intelligence |
OR | OR operator | q=Tesla+OR+SpaceX |
- | Exclude term | q=Apple+-fruit |
"..." | Exact phrase (URL-encode the quotes) | q=%22climate+change%22 |
when:7d | Time filter — last N days/hours | q=Bitcoin+when:7d |
when:1h | Time filter — last 1 hour | q=breaking+news+when:1h |
after:YYYY-MM-DD | Articles after a date | q=Olympics+after:2024-07-01 |
before:YYYY-MM-DD | Articles before a date | q=Olympics+before:2024-08-15 |
site: | Restrict to a domain | q=AI+site:reuters.com |
Example — search for "artificial intelligence" in the last 7 days:
https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=artificial+intelligence+when:7d&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
RSS Response Format
All feeds return RSS 2.0 XML. Here is the general structure:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" version="2.0">
<channel>
<generator>NFE/5.0</generator>
<title>Top stories - Google News</title>
<link>https://news.google.com/?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en</link>
<language>en-US</language>
<webMaster>news-webmaster@google.com</webMaster>
<copyright>...</copyright>
<lastBuildDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2026 20:50:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>
<item>
<title>Article headline - Publisher Name</title>
<link>https://news.google.com/rss/articles/...</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://news.google.com/rss/articles/...</guid>
<>Wed, 18 Feb 2026 19:05:07 GMT
Article TitlePublisher
...
Publisher Name
Key Fields per <item>
| Field | Description |
|---|
<title> | Headline text followed by - Publisher Name |
<link> | Google News redirect URL. Visiting it in a browser redirects to the actual article. |
<guid> | Unique identifier (same as <link>) |
<pubDate> | Publication date in RFC 2822 format |
<description> | HTML snippet containing an ordered list (<ol>) of related/clustered articles with links and publisher names |
<source url="..."> | Publisher name and homepage URL |
Common Patterns
Fetch Top Headlines (curl + grep)
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en" \
| grep -oP '<title>\K[^<]+'
Fetch Top Headlines (Python)
import feedparser
feed = feedparser.parse(
"https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en"
)
for entry in feed.entries:
print(f"{entry.published} — {entry.title}")
print(f" Link: {entry.link}")
print()
Fetch Topic Feed (curl + xmllint)
TOPIC="CAAqJggKIiBDQkFTRWdvSUwyMHZNRGRqTVhZU0FtVnVHZ0pWVXlnQVAB"
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/topics/${TOPIC}?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en" \
| xmllint --xpath '//item/title/text()' -
Search for Articles (Python)
import feedparser
import urllib.parse
query = urllib.parse.quote("artificial intelligence when:7d")
url = f"https://news.google.com/rss/search?q={query}&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en"
feed = feedparser.parse(url)
for entry in feed.entries[:10]:
print(f"• {entry.title}")
Fetch News for a Specific Location (Node.js)
const https = require("https");
const { parseStringPromise } = require("xml2js");
const url =
"https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en";
https.get(url, (res) => {
let data = "";
res.on("data", (chunk) => (data += chunk));
res.on("end", async () => {
const result = await parseStringPromise(data);
const items = result.rss.channel[0].item || [];
items.slice(0, 10).forEach((item) => {
console.log(item.title[0]);
});
});
});
Extract Related Articles from Description (Python)
import feedparser
from html.parser import HTMLParser
class RelatedParser(HTMLParser):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.articles = []
self._in_a = False
self._href = ""
self._text = ""
def handle_starttag(self, tag, attrs):
if tag == "a":
self._in_a = True
self._href = dict(attrs).get("href", "")
self._text = ""
def handle_endtag(self, tag):
if tag == "a" and self._in_a:
self.articles.append({"title": self._text, "link": self._href})
self._in_a = False
def handle_data(self, data):
if self._in_a:
._text += data
feed = feedparser.parse(
)
entry feed.entries[:]:
()
parser = RelatedParser()
parser.feed(entry.description)
art parser.articles:
()
()
Build a Multi-Region News Aggregator (Python)
import feedparser
REGIONS = {
"US": "hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en",
"UK": "hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en",
"DE": "hl=de&gl=DE&ceid=DE:de",
"JP": "hl=ja&gl=JP&ceid=JP:ja",
"BR": "hl=pt-BR&gl=BR&ceid=BR:pt-419",
}
for region, params in REGIONS.items():
feed = feedparser.parse(f"https://news.google.com/rss?{params}")
print(f"\n--- {region} Top 3 ---")
for entry in feed.entries[:3]:
print(f" • {entry.title}")
Monitor a Topic with Polling (bash)
#!/usr/bin/env bash
FEED="https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=breaking+news+when:1h&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en"
SEEN_FILE="/tmp/gnews_seen.txt"
touch "$SEEN_FILE"
while true; do
curl -s "$FEED" | grep -oP '<guid[^>]*>\K[^<]+' | while read -r guid; do
if ! grep -qF "$guid" "$SEEN_FILE"; then
echo "$guid" >> "$SEEN_FILE"
TITLE=$(curl -s "$FEED" | grep -oP "<item>.*?<guid[^>]*>${guid}.*?</item>" \
| grep -oP '<title>\K[^<]+' | head -1)
echo "[NEW] $TITLE"
fi
done
sleep 120
done
Resolving Google News Redirect URLs
Article links in the RSS feed point to https://news.google.com/rss/articles/... which redirect (HTTP 302/303) to the actual publisher URL. To resolve the final URL:
curl
curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w '%{url_effective}' \
"https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiWkFV..."
Python
import requests
response = requests.head(
"https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiWkFV...",
allow_redirects=True,
timeout=10,
)
print(response.url)
Rate Limits
Google does not publish official rate limits for the RSS feeds. Based on community observations:
| Guideline | Recommendation |
|---|
| Polling interval | ≥ 60 seconds between requests for the same feed |
| Concurrent requests | Keep below ~10 concurrent connections |
| Burst behavior | Rapid bursts may trigger HTTP 429 or CAPTCHA challenges |
| User-Agent | Use a descriptive User-Agent; empty or bot-like strings may be blocked |
If you receive an HTTP 429 response, back off exponentially (e.g., 1 min → 2 min → 4 min).
Error Handling
| HTTP Status | Meaning | Action |
|---|
| 200 | Success | Parse the RSS XML |
| 301/302 | Redirect | Follow the redirect (most HTTP clients do this automatically) |
| 404 | Feed not found | Check the URL, topic ID, or locale parameters |
| 429 | Rate limited | Back off and retry after a delay |
| 5xx | Server error | Retry with exponential backoff |
Tips
- No auth needed — all feeds are fully public. Start fetching immediately.
- Use
feedparser in Python — it handles RSS parsing, date normalization, and encoding edge cases.
- Combine search modifiers —
q=Tesla+site:reuters.com+when:30d for precise results.
- Topic IDs are locale-specific — an English topic ID may not work with
hl=de. Inspect the Google News page in that locale to find the correct ID.
- The
<description> field is HTML — it contains clustered/related articles as an <ol> list. Parse the HTML to extract multiple sources per story.
- The
<title> includes the publisher — the format is Headline text - Publisher Name. Split on - (space-dash-space) from the right to separate them.
- Feed results are limited — Google typically returns ~100 items per feed. Use search with date filters to paginate through older results.
- Respect the copyright notice — Google's RSS feeds are intended for personal, non-commercial use in feed readers. Review Google's terms for other uses.
- Resolve redirects lazily — only resolve the Google redirect URL to the publisher URL when you actually need the final link. This saves requests.
- Set a proper User-Agent — e.g.,
User-Agent: MyNewsBot/1.0 (contact@example.com). Some environments may get blocked without one.
Changelog
- 0.1.0 — Initial release with top stories, topic feeds, search feeds, multi-region support, and common usage patterns.
