I run a daily tech news blog on Blogger. Whenever breaking news happens, I want to publish a quick Google Web Story immediately while the search interest is peaking on Google Discover. But building 8 to 10 slides manually (choosing background colors, formatting text, setting timers, and adding swipe links) takes me nearly 35 to 40 minutes per story.
Someone mentioned in a previous thread that there is a 2-step workflow with the official MakeStory AI Gem where you can simply paste a news article link or text snippet, review a plain-text outline first, and then get the ready-to-import MakeStory JSON in seconds.
How exactly does this 2-step review process work in the Gem? And does it work with direct live URLs as well as raw text?
Comments (16)
How are people turning entire news articles into a 10-slide Web Story in under 60 seconds with the AI Gem?
Here is why the 2-step approach inside the MakeStory AI Gem is so powerful:
Step 1: The Plain Text Review (Slide-by-Slide List)
You open the MakeStory AI Gem on Gemini and paste your article text or live news URL (e.g., Turn this article into a 9-slide story: [URL or text]).
The Gem does NOT dump confusing code on you right away. Instead, it gives you a clean, plain text preview listing every slide:
1•Slide 1: Hook Title & Intro
2•Slide 2 to 7: Key bullet points, facts, and stats
3•Slide 8: Interactive Quiz or Key Takeaway
4•Slide 9: Conclusion & Swipe-Up Link
Step 2: Instant Editing & JSON Output
You glance over the text list. If you want any changes, just tell it in plain English (e.g. Make slide 4 shorter"
or Add 2 more slides comparing prices).
When you are satisfied, simply type: Ready or Generate JSON.
The Gem immediately outputs the clean MakeStory JSON block containing all layouts, animations, and color palettes ready for 1-click import!
For instance, while reviewing the text list, I always type: "Add an interactive quiz on slide 7 testing the reader on this news, with option B as correct."
The Gem automatically embeds our native quiz_light layout into the JSON with all 4 multiple-choice options and the correct answer index already configured. When imported into Make Story 2.0, the confetti animation is ready to go!
1| In Make Story 2.0, open the top-right menu.
2| Click Import AI Story.
3| Paste the JSON block into the popup window and click Import Story.
Your entire canvas timeline will build and arrange all 8 to 10 slides automatically with text, colors, timers, and animations. You don't have to type a single word on the canvas.
Take the URLs of your top 10 older evergreen articles. Feed them one by one into the Gem, generate the Web Story JSONs, and publish them as standalone stories linked back to the original articles.
I did this for 8 old smartphone review guides last month, and 3 of those stories hit Google Discover within 48 hours, bringing thousands of fresh readers back to my older content.
Can I literally just grab those trending news links from my Discover feed, paste them into the MakeStory AI Gem, and publish them as Web Stories on my blog?
Or will Google penalize my blog for duplicate content / copying news?
Here is why you won't get penalized for duplicate content:
The Gem Summarizes, It Doesn't Copy: Big news portals write 1,500-word heavy paragraphs. The AI Gem extracts only the raw facts and completely rewrites them into 8 bite-sized, conversational bullet points. Google treats this as original summary reporting.
Visual Format Difference: Google does not compare a vertical visual AMP Web Story to a traditional text article as duplicate content. They serve completely different user intents on mobile.
Search Velocity: When a topic is already trending on Discover, Google's algorithm is actively hungry for fresh visual content on that exact topic.
Method 1: Inside Make Story 2.0, use the built-in search to grab relevant royalty-free photos from Pexels/Unsplash.
Method 2: If it is a gadget launch, car, or movie trailer, official press release photos and brand renders are fair game under editorial reporting. Just add a quick credit in the slide alt text (e.g., Image: Apple Pressroom).
Never use watermarked photos from competitor blogs and you will be 100% safe.
On traditional Google web search (typing keywords in the search bar), high Domain Authority (DA) and backlinks matter a lot. But Google Discover is an interest-based feed, not a keyword search engine.
https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/images/Banner_JzlcnWm.width-1300.jpg
image credit to Google Blog
Discover algorithms prioritize:
1️⃣ Speed & Freshness: Who published visual coverage of the topic first.
2️⃣ Mobile Experience: Fast-loading AMP Web Stories beat slow, ad-cluttered 2,000-word desktop articles every single time on smartphones.
3️⃣ Click-Through & Dwell Time: Clean 1200x900 poster images and interactive quiz slides hold user attention, which signals Google to push the story to tens of thousands of more users regardless of your domain age.