The site being promoted doesnt seem like it should be on Google news.

Google doesn't matter anymore.

1. GMail's sticky for mail. 2. YouTube exists as YouTube. 3. Maps is monopoly bundled into Android.

While on the backend, Google may suggest everything's integrated plus how wonderful the free lunch GCP is, the above three distinct products are all there is left.

AI killed search, it's a zombie that's well on the way to Yahoo! Yellow Pages relevance. Google killed everything else it had.

OP may find they're ahead of the game as they were forced to look beyond Google early.

I think the rise of Google was a net negative for independent creators online. Smaller websites are having a harder time, and I know because I work for one and ran a few in the past, and the ones that can optimize SEO better but produce mediocre work get put to the top. Most topical sites about cameras are like that, gear reviews, etc. You won't get real quality unless you really dig through the results or know where to look past crap like Techradar.

Yeah they have a good platform like YouTube, though I think it was better before Google.