I thought the motivation behind the Google company decision was the lawsuits that publishers filed against both the news aggregation and the listing in Google search results. At least originally, it was more the newspapers giving permission so they couldn't sue Google if their copy appeared anywhere on the Google site.
My bet is that if the Italians passed a law that said that a newspaper could not take action against a news aggregator or lister on their search results the whole Google prohibitions would go away.
Unless, of course, the real reason is to force Google to inject cash into the Italian economy.
Italian regulators examine Google News
Summary
Competition regulators in Italy have opened an inquiry into Google News at the behest of publishers, which allege they are banned from search results unless they agree to be part of it.
Topics
Competition regulators in Italy have opened an inquiry into Google News at the behest of publishers, which allege they are banned from search results unless they agree to be part of it.
According to a report on The Wall Street Journal's website on Thursday, Google's offices in Italy were searched by regulators seeking evidence that it forces Italian news sites to make their copy available through Google News unless they are willing to be excluded from its search result pages. A complaint was filed by an Italian newspaper organization, FIEG, which also decried the lack of information made available to publishers as to how Google News organizes links to stories.
Google Italy representatives were quoted in several places as saying: "The Competition Authority has notified us of a claim against Google Italy. We're finding out more details today, although we do know that it's in relation to Google News, which drives significant traffic and new readers to newspaper websites."
Google later posted a blog about the inquiry, acknowledging the existence of the claim but spending most of the post explaining how publishers can remove themselves from Google News, but not search results, at their request.
Google News is a sore spot for many publishing companies, which feel Google's news aggregation site siphons readers from their own websites. Marissa Mayer, Google's vice-president of search products and user experience, appeared before the US Congress in May to defend the company against such charges, and said it directs an awful lot of traffic — which can be turned into ad revenue — to newspaper websites for free.
However, allegations that Google is messing with search results pages in retaliation for business decisions are serious. Google's search results are supposed to be completely automated — driven by algorithms and keywords — and a large part of its growth has been driven by the public belief that its search results are gospel.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that Google had denied the charges regarding the search results. Google's blog post on Thursday did not specifically address the allegation, but said there is a mechanism for removing one's content from Google News yet leaving it among search results.
The inquiry also comes at a point in Google's history where just about everything it does gets examined through an antitrust lens, with a new administration in the US taking a closer look at several parts of its business.
This article was originally posted on CNET News.
Talkback Most Recent of 5 Talkback(s)
-
TomMariner28th Aug 2009 -
RE: Italian regulators examine Google News
I need to read up more on antitrust really. At what point
did Google become the Fed? Let me say first off, that I
don't suspect Google is retaliating in any way, but my
thought process is, if they did, so what? It's their
playground and there are other choices. It's not a secret
that all search engines censor content, so what's the big
hubbub about, beyond bitter, old school business
interests using old bully habits to battle new ones?
ArV28th Aug 2009 -
The fact that Google's the biggest
So therefore they want to make sure there are no undue influences being attached to this.
It's not a secret that all search engines censor content, so what's the big hubbub about, beyond bitter, old school business interests using old bully habits to battle new ones
Oh and the fact that other search engines (a hell of a lot smaller than Google, I might add) do this, that supposed to make it right?
Wintel BSOD28th Aug 2009 -
RE: Italian regulators examine Google News
There is a presumption amongst both the general public and internet service providers like Google that "if it's on the web, it's free".
This pricing model cannot be sustained. Google is clearly driving traffic to its own pages by simply reproducing content other companies and organisations have paid to have produced.
Nowhere is this truer than with content written by journalists paid for by their employers, the newspaper and magazine publishers.
Google are not an altruistic company; if there was no commercial advantage to them in repeating other companies' intellectual property - articles, news items etc - on their pages then they wouldn't do do. They would use the valuable and limited screen real estate for something else.
They - like the BBC and other parasitical websites - have no defence here. In a world where content is king I hope the authorities impose fines of a magnitutde that make it quite clear that one company cannot advance its commercial interests by stealing from another.
brian.smith@...29th Aug 2009 -
Screw Corporate Media They are a Cancer
Google connects more people to more web sites than any other Internet source period. If their service never existed I would bet these Big Corporate Cry Babies wouldn't have nearly the traffic and revenue that have today. I have no connection with them at all but over the years I have seen them remain true to the Internet users who are the real owners of the Internet. While other Corporations handed over personal records to the government just because they where asked too google said no. They where the only ones to say no. The corporations just want to stifle googles effectiveness. To hell with the big media.
iamjackalope@...30th Aug 2009
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Facebook Activity
