Google Finally Hosting News On Its Site: Will Newspapers Get Pissed Off At AP Now?

from the ah,-the-shifting-marketplace dept

Fri, Aug 31st 2007 4:40pm — Mike Masnick

Earlier this month, we noted that it had been a year since Google had done a deal with the Associated press and there appeared to be nothing to show for it. That led to speculation that the deal really had nothing to do with with some new "news" product, and it was really about paying off the AP so it didn't sue Google for linking to AP stories (the way some other news organizations had done). That seemed strange because it was quite difficult to see what the Associated Press or anyone else had to argue about if Google News was providing their news partners more traffic. However, the snickering over a lack of any real project seems to have kicked Google into action, and they've just announced that they're going to start hosting news content on their own site from the AP and a few other news organizations the company has done deals with. Amusingly, I was unable to find the AP version of this story hosted on Google itself, but did find the Canadian Press version. There don't appear to be any advertisements on the Google hosted version, but there are links to "related news" -- which makes a lot of sense. Of course, if I were a publisher partner of the Associated Press, I'd actually be really upset by this deal -- but directed at the Associated Press, rather than at Google. This deal is likely to lower traffic to other sites that republish AP reports. So all those partners get no benefit from the deal and actually lose out on traffic. If there are newspapers who want to get upset about Google News, they should get upset at the AP for basically giving a bunch of their traffic directly to Google.

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Filed Under: associated press, google news, newspapers
Companies: associated press, google

13 Comments

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Xanius, 31 Aug 2007 @ 6:37pm

They should have thought of that...
before they decided to sue google for giving them traffic.
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GoblinJuice, 31 Aug 2007 @ 7:02pm

Example.
An example of a news story hosted by Google. Valid as of this posting. =)

Google broadens access to agency news
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Avatar28, 31 Aug 2007 @ 7:38pm

maybe they'll stop their sniveling now
Well, they have been complaining about Google sending traffic their way. So screw 'em. Now people won't have to go to their sites, they can read the news right on Google without going to their site. Of course you KNOW they'll start screaming that Google is costing them all this money and using it as proof that Google should be sued for copyright infringement or something. I guarantee you that at least one is going to claim that the decrease in their traffic is proof, PROOF, that they were right all along about Google using them for a free ride. Idiots. I'm with the crowd that thinks that if a newspaper objects to having Google News reference their site that Google should just say, "okay, fine. From this point forward your site will not be crawled for Google news. Your stories will not appear in our database." Then A) watch their traffic plummet and B) their competitors' traffic go up. I wonder what they'd cry about then.
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jon, 31 Aug 2007 @ 7:38pm

maybe now there'll be a place to link to AP stories that won't disappear after a few months!
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Mike (profile), 31 Aug 2007 @ 7:44pm

Re: Example.
An example of a news story hosted by Google. Valid as of this posting. =)

Wasn't looking for an example, but the specific AP version of the story... In the post I have a link to the CP version hosted at Google. Yours is the AFP version. Still can't find the AP version...
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Eric the Grey, 31 Aug 2007 @ 8:57pm

That's two in one day...
First Apple thumbs it's nose at NBC, and now Google is doing it to the newspapers.

Gotta love it.

EtG
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Neil, 31 Aug 2007 @ 10:37pm

MS/NBC vs GOOGLE/AP
round one... FIGHT!!!
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GoblinJuice, 31 Aug 2007 @ 11:42pm

Re: Re: Example.
Not hosted by Google. ;

Google Begins Hosting News on Its Site

ap.google.com's robots.txt disallows everything, sooo... no real luck searching it.
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Bignumone, 1 Sep 2007 @ 5:05am

Re: That's two in one day...
Shoot, you beat me to the punch with this comment.
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Bignumone, 1 Sep 2007 @ 5:17am

The internet as the great equalizer
This move shows no longer can news outlets determine which news is good for you to read. Similarly, iTunes helps break large corporation's grip on what you should pay for music, movies and TV (there is still work to do there, now Apple is determining that).
All of these are filters to what you see and hear. These corporations can influence how you feel about issues by NOT making certain news and information available to you. They can also ruin a person very quickly if they so desire.
That is very much power for one entity to have, I would say too much power.
I used to trust CNN, but recently I saw a piece that conveniently left out some information that could be seen as politically expedient to leave out. It exposed their political bias and now I don't trust what they report. Too much power concentrated under one roof.

For now this is good, but now are the people at Google becoming the filter? We should watch carefully what they do with this power.
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Robert, 1 Sep 2007 @ 10:17am

The wrath of Google
I am happy that Google if finally sticking it to these industries that have nothing better to do than blame Google for all their problems. Back when they news sites began suing Google for bringing traffic to their sites, and suing because Google had snippets of their stories, I was just hoping Google would just drop those news sites from their search engine... that would be punishment enough... now Google is 'taking' the traffic from them, so it's double punishment. It's the justice everyone hopes to get, but nobody ever has the money to get it. Gratz Google.
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Peter, 4 Sep 2007 @ 8:03am

About Google Nesw
Google needs to support journalists. Free online advertising competitors such as Craigslist.com have sharply undermined classified advertising as a traditional source of revenue. Of course journalists do not have the luxury of taking it easy in life and hitting the 100+ million diollar jackpot like the internet children in California like Hurley and Zookuhberg without a care in the world.

Is it not possible for Google and other information corporations to offer more direct support to schools of journalism to help ensure that this craft's values and skills are passed on to the next generation? It is also worrying that in future Google news searches turn up not news, but crazy ravings from basement bloggers, fake news reports from government officials.
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Glenn Charles, 26 Jun 2008 @ 10:19am

link in article
" hosting news content on their own site from the AP" and 404 error...
--Glenn
8]-
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