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by Dryondristica 1980 days ago
There is an entire, well-established SEO industry worth billions trying to get Google to index your content and feature it. News publishers are literally incentivising Google to do the opposite. It makes no sense. I really hope Google continues to call their bluff - they would be completely dead if not for Google traffic, and they surely know it.
3 comments
cblconfederate 1980 days ago
How can that be a good thing? Why is google worth being paid for providing content they paid $0 to make?

SEO is not a good industry, it's the equivalent of government lobbying , but this time with a different overlord. The problem with google is not that it's a search engine, but that it has bought and guards every significant entry point to the web

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marcus_holmes 1980 days ago
Paying journalists to write stories, only to have Google "index" that content in such a way that your readers don't feel the need to visit your site and see your ads, is not a workable business model.

But (as you say), not letting Google index your stories at all reduces your traffic to the point where you can't make enough money to pay the journalist either.

It's a very tough call for the newspaper industry. The only way out that I can see is getting readers to pay for news. Unfortunately we've educated an entire generation that news is free. Going back from that is going to be difficult.

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squiggleblaz 1980 days ago
I guess the American multinational corporations could have negotiated between themselves to simplify what is shown. Instead of showing the headline and a snippet, it could have shown simply "Herald Sun, political report, 25/07/2020" or "The Age, opinion, 13/01/2021".
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squiggleblaz 1980 days ago
> they would be completely dead if not for Google traffic, and they surely know it.

It's worth pointing out that this is not the hidden secret that needs exposing, but the public motivation for this policy. The government is trying to present this as "tech monopolies are abusing kind producers of Australian news, and because the tech monopolies have such a strong hand, we must compel them into making agreements they otherwise would not have chosen".

That's why they've gone to such an extent to try and prevent the "well we just won't index you" loophole.

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