December 2007
Friend or Foe? Publishers Wrestle With Google
It’s one of the hottest topics on the Internet – and one which will probably never go away.
Is Google a friend or a foe? Should you be fighting Google’s apparently effortless rise to world dominance or going with the tide?
“It all depends…” is the essence of an article about news search by Urs Gossweiler, in November issue 2007 of IDEAS Magazine from INMA.
Critics of Google argue that it is generating revenues from the work of publishers by using its news search database to pick out the best stories which it displays without paying royalties or sharing revenues with the originators of the content.
The Belgian Publishers’ Association has just won a landmark legal victory against Google and the Swiss publishers seem set to follow. Publisher-controlled national news search sites are a logical consequence in these two countries.
But what’s the point of attacking Google? Who else can provide a comparable service to the market?
Gossweiler’s argument is that Google, by displaying title and lead text only, directs visitors to the source sites – and additional site traffic is exactly what publishers want. What’s more, Google searches on a global basis – which is exactly what users want.
So far, so good. The great danger is that Google has the capability to capture and display complete content – and there are no international copyright laws which could prevent this.
So, maybe the right approach is to live in peace with Google while the current status quo pertains, keeping a watchful eye on developments.
Gossweiler offers one important piece of advice –
“It isn’t just the product which is important, but also the packaging. For this reason, there is one thing more important than the best technology: The cultivation of one’s own brand, particularly on the World Wide Web.”
- a good piece of advice which is totally in keeping with MatchWork’s views on publisher branding.
