Google's approach with the Full Coverage feature is fascinating for its consistency. Every person who clicks into a Full Coverage package gets the exact same blend of stories, every time. These packages are centered around newsworthy events and consist of (among other things) clearly marked opinion, analysis and fact-checked articles. In building broad, informative recaps around events in the news, Google is conceding that there are varying viewpoints attached to every newsworthy event. Since it refuses to consider itself an arbiter of facts, though, the company's play with Full Coverage is to give people what they need to make up their own minds.

"We don't feel like we're in the business of establishing what the fact is and is not," Google News product lead Trystan Upstill told Engadget. "One of the key challenges we see is that people look at a single document that has been shared with them or is framed by their friends on some platform, and it's impossible to understand what the full context of that story is. We wanted to build something that takes you out of your local echo chamber and kind of lets you blow the doors off."

Upstill wouldn't name names of platforms where this sort of virulent insular thinking is common -- he noted that he "wouldn't lay the blame at the feet of any provider because it's complicated." Even so, it's not hard to figure out where the problem gets especially troubling. By dint of its mission to deliver content that's more personally relatable, Facebook's algorithmic ranking has a tendency to reinforce existing viewpoints and biases in a way that echo chambers are allowed to flourish. Once you're in one of those bubbles, it takes time to convince Facebook's underlying algorithms that you're open to being exposed to new perspectives.

That's where Full Coverage shines: You might not like or agree with every article or video that it surfaces, but they come from trusted news sources from across the ideological spectrum to make sure people have a common baseline of understanding to work from. Many of Google's products are valuable because they tailor their experiences to their users, but by insisting that everyone gets the same Full Coverage, the company hopes to make people's worlds just a little bigger.