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Chicken-And-Egg 2006: Print Media Circulates Story To Search Engines, Complaining How Search Engines Steal Content
I found some news that surely will build into a bigger story throughout the year.
Note: I found it through search; if I hadn't, I would have missed it completely. Which is the point of this story.
According to the Financial Times, print publishers -- feeling marginalized by the proliferation of free news on the Web (not to mention blogs) -- are lashing out now, demanding compensation from search engines for unfairly exploiting their content. This movement is forming out of Europe by an organization called "The World Association of Newspapers", which includes newspaper, magazine and book publishers.
My confusion: this organization has no problem uploading its complaint which threaten lawsuits to search engine companies. By uploading it and making it freely available to read, they are promoting their story and trying to reach the widest possible audience. I found it. And yet, I didn't find their story directly through the Financial Times; I found it through search. Which is exactly what they are complaining about. So what's the win here?
They accused Google and all search engines of building a business "on the back of kleptomania," and threatened legal action if the search companies refuse to comply. The group's president said that while consumers and publishers alike need search engines to make information on the Web readily accessible, search engines also need news content providers in order to provide their news aggregation services. Sounds like one of those chicken-and-egg conundrums.
With all the aggregrators and RSS/XML syndicating feeds in use today, how in the world can you put that genie back in the bottle?
The group complains that publishers lose out on ad revenue because consumers end up reading the headlines and blurbs on these services and no longer need to link to the stories themselves. So far, although Google was willing to tailor its service for China limiting search capabilities, Google remained adamant that all information should be available for "free".
Marketplace pressures working on Google and search this year could prove fascinating.
full FT.com story
posted by Unknown @ Wednesday, February 01, 2006,
