Crowd-sourced, local news app Google Bulletin now available for testing

In some markets, Facebook has been drawing a lot of hate lately because of the way they handle reports, often banning some accounts for minor reasons. Even worse, some political parties use entire hordes of people to mass-report the Facebook pages of vocal opponents. After all, a user who writes a lot on delicate topics must have said someday something worth at least a temporary ban, right? Well, the recently introduced Google Bulletin might become a worthy refuge for many Facebook users who need a mouth of fresh air.

According to the official announcement, "Bulletin is an app for contributing hyperlocal stories about your community, for your community, right from your phone. Bulletin makes it effortless to put a spotlight on inspiring stories that aren’t being told." 

To put it in other words, using Google Bulletin is like blogging, but without the need to set up and maintain a blog. However, the fact that Bulletin stories are public and easy to discover is both good and bad. As I said earlier, there are local companies or parties (and countries as well, remember the recent US elections and all the stories about Russia's involvement online) that would quickly flood the web with fake news and biased comments to lead the public opinion in the wrong direction, but it is too early to talk about such things for now.

Sadly, Bulletin is currently in a limited pilot stage that only covers Nashville, TN and Oakland, CA. Using it is free, but requires an approval that could be granted after requesting early access here.