Many news articles are now published directly on the web. News aggregators are good sources to find news headlines, blog posts, and videos.
Look at trends in hot searches with Google Trends. Browse by date, or look at top searches in different categories with the new Top Charts function. Finally, with the Explore function, input a search term and see how it trended over time and location.
With World News Map, you can view the news on a map. Select the events that interest you or create your own map using a google account.