The war is on and we didn’t take a side or report about it as we were confused which side to take. Yes, I am talking of the tussle which is presently going on between Google and the (newspaper) publishers.
Lets be frank, I am with both sides till they are playing it fair and in a justified way. I am not a vocalist who is dying to have everything for free. If we get everything for free, how the worker will live as food doesn’t come for free!
Google News, bright future or bleak? Image courtesy: topnews.in
As we know Google News brings us snippets of the world’s happenings. Now, Google doesn’t have reporters on payroll to bring these news to the readers. Google used to scan leading newspapers and news syndicates to bring these news to its users. Everything was going fine till a ‘bad’ publisher said, what do we gain by giving you our news for which we need to pay our reporters hefty salary?
The war began and it is showing no sign of abatement. Google has this point called “explosion of content” and it is very true. The widespread internet has given birth to this explosion. Now everyone is a reporter, professional or otherwise. As they report from all the sides so people can also get a more balanced news regarding any issue. This is really good. Moreover, with the advent of social media, people are reporting from everywhere and news are catching up fire thanks to those +1s, re-shares, likes. So, how far content generators can go to protect it? Obviously they cant sue every SNS user!
But then, newspaper syndicates from Brazil reported a mere 5% loss when they withdrew content from Google News and according to Ricardo Pedreira, ANJ’s executive director,” the 5-percent loss was a price worth paying to defend our authors’ rights and our brands.” And they are not too eager to go back to Google news really.
French President said, Google should reach a deal with the publishers. German lawmakers are already at it. Should Google reach a deal with the publishers? ‘cause without most news syndicates, they will have no real news to present the world with. On the other hand, if you feel like the media should be free and every news should reach as far as it can then let us know in the comments too.
