Software Engineers Jack Hebert and Natasha Mohanty have announced that Google News is launching a 5-year quotes index. The concept of extracting quotes first came into being in April.

Quote extraction was then launched for the first time ever by Google News and allowed interested Google users to surf through quotations made available from the past months worth of news.

This first try at quote extraction was thought to be a good first attempt. Internet users were able to view and compare what people were discussing with regards to various important issues. However, this was not enough as it was understood that the quote extraction feature required that little extra something.

After this first attempt, Google News has now announced the launch of a 5-year quotes index. The benefit of this new and improved quote extraction system is that it allows interested users to come up with information on topics going back for a longer period of time. People interested can now learn about what Governor Palin said in the time before she was a VP nominee.

Internet users can also read about Senator Obama before he became a candidate for the presidency. This new system has also led to a marked improvement in the InQuotes lab page. Users can now compare quotes over a period of time on topics as diverse as the economy or the war in Iraq.