According To WSJ, Google Not Just A 'Thief' But A 'Digital Vampire'
from the oh-please dept
There's an absolutely huge business out there of folks trying to get more traffic from Google, called Search Engine Optimization. It's a big deal. Traffic to your website is the lifeblood of most internet business models, and so any way to get more traffic is a good thing. Except if you're in the newspaper business for some reason. Lately we keep seeing odd stories of newspaper business folks complaining about the fact that Google sends them traffic. The latest? Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton, who called Google a "digital vampire" claiming that it's "sucking the blood" out of the newspaper industry (found via Mathew Ingram). He then goes on to suggest that at least some of this is the newspapers' own fault for giving "Google's fangs a great place to bite."So, uh, Mr. Hinton, here's a suggestion: there's a little thing called robots.txt. You can block Google from indexing your websites. Then everyone's happy, right? That stops the bloodflow right there.
Except, perhaps the real issues is that, as everyone in every other business seems to recognize, traffic is important, and it's up to the website receiving that traffic to capitalize on it. So, either Hinton doesn't know this, or he's simply lying. Neither one makes Dow Jones look particularly smart.
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Filed Under: journalism, les hinton, newspapers, search engines, traffic
Companies: dow jones, google
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One error is all it takes.
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Also it's not the plumbers fault for not knowing how to soder copper pipes together.
I know it took me an entire 15 minutes to learn how to block all webcrawlers from my online game club's website that had fancy ummm... "sitemaps" and "forums" I guess a professional working at the WSJ shouldn't be expected to do the same amount of work.
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You can spew all the crap you want, but who is going to believe it without anything to back it up ?
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1. Google uses "Googlebot" as the useragent - block it
2. Google's IP range is well known - block it
there, I got 2 solutions in under a minute. But that wont stop you from whining... will it?
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Security?
Newspapers feel like it is not their job to have to proactively defend their content by writing robots.txt files except every other industry is responsible for protecting its own data online. They are the ones Posting the content, it is their job to protect it.
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Re: Back that up ...
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Re: Re: Back that up ...
Proof? What proof? We don't need no stinkin' proof!
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Maybe its time for the WSJ to hang it up and go home.
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I wouldn't read WSJ even without a pay wall. Lots of people feel that way. They do a bad job as far as newspapers go, they're on the way out as far as relevance.
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WSJ Pay Wall
google is bad, yet content that typically is only available behind their pay wall is purposely exposed for free to google's spider.
Turn that capability off and enjoy your private life behind the pay wall, easy as that.
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Digital Vampire...
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Re: Digital Vampire...
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Do you hear that?
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Re: Do you hear that?
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Incorrect. Straight from Google News:
"If you don't want your site to be included in Google News, please let us know and we'll remove it from our index.
Keep in mind that the removal process normally takes a few days and that your articles already included in Google News will expire after 30 days."
Says nothing about being removed from all indexes. Just the index for Google News.
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Or it is the fact it also links to about a dozen other sources with the same article/subject allowing people to pick who's version they want to read....lot more likely
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Yellow Pages
I think the answer is that the yellow pages industry embraced the Internet fairly early. Now when the yp-type companies call you they promise to get your listing prominently on the web, and then mention that they publish it in the local phone book almost as an afterthought. Newspapers had a choice early on and decided to live in their fantasy world and ignored the Internet. How different would things be if the newspapers had followed the model of the yellow pages industry and realized they do not have a divine right to be protected from change?
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Re: Yellow Pages
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I think part of the problem
We will still find the same news from another source. The only difference is that you will loose the page views you would have received if you were linked from Google.
Disclaimer -I've had one or two WSJ subs in my life, usually when they were required reading for college classes.
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Re: #20 - AC
"Click to exit"
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Oh great.
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From what I've seen of their editorial content, the WSJ has become an echo chamber of capitalist protectionism (now there's an oxymoron). The editorials are against regulation when it would force them to act more ethically, not that I'm sure there is a business - client ethics model at this point. They are for regulation when it protects their business models, which means they do not have to innovate to compete.
It's amazing to me that all these high paid executives cannot figure out new business models to remain profitable. I guess executives earning 300 times the compensation of an average employee is no guarantee of excellence like those executives say it is.
There are models tying together print and electronic media that have the opportunity to work. I've seen some starts in this direction. I've seen some music industry business models that might also be applicable.
I wonder when these executives will start earning their compensation. Maybe this is a question stockholders should ask.
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Xenu™ Awaits
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What is killing the newspaper industry
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IT takes money to make money
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Other Profit Centers
-Bitter Google Fan
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Mike is search advertising competitive like you imply?
With all due respect, the crux of your strong defense of Google depends on whether the search advertising market is competitive or not. I analyzed Google's slogan -- competition is but "a click away" -- and found it can't withstand close scutiny of the facts or logic. It is untrue and deceptive. See: http://www.precursorblog.com/content/what-one-click-away
Are you officially claiming the search advertisiing business is fully competitive?
Scott Cleland Precursor LLC
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Re: Mike is search advertising competitive like you imply?
Are you officially claiming the search advertisiing business is fully competitive?----
Ummmm...are you high? Or did you just not read the story you were posting on? I tried applying some close 'scutiny' to the facts and logic of your post, and still fail to see what the competitiveness of the search advertising market has to do with Mike saying that if the newspapers wanted NOT to be listed in Google News, they DON'T HAVE TO BE, but it would be/is completely asinine to remove the traffic they get from Google. I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but you just challenged him on something that was not said, and insinuated that Google's slogan about competition (which once again has nothing to do with the article) was something Mike is defending.
I just had to know...are you just high, are you a (very weak) troll, or are you just another shill? I can't quite tell, so I figured I'd give you another opportunity to obfuscate the topic.
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Re: Mike is search advertising competitive like you imply?
What?!? Dude, I know AT&T pays you a ton to bash Google at every turn, but please, at least keep this relevant.
We're not talking about *search advertising* at all. We're talking about organic search.
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See how they do without google
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Wow
RT
www.complete-privacy.tk
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Google Stolen My Money!
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