2w ago

Google claims news is worthless to its ad business after test involving 1% of search results in eight EU markets.

Our experiment on the value of European news content

Google ran an experiment to understand the value of European news content. The data shows people visited Google only slightly less often when this content was removed, and Google’s ad revenue did not significantly change.

United Kingdom @feddit.uk

Mex @feddit.uk

2w ago

Our experiment on the value of European news content

blog.google /around-the-globe/google-europe/our-experiment-on-the-value-of-european-news-content/

Technology @lemmy.zip

Tea @programming.dev

2w ago

Google claims news is worthless to its ad business after test involving 1% of search results in eight EU markets.

blog.google /around-the-globe/google-europe/our-experiment-on-the-value-of-european-news-content/

11 comments

Is this where Google gets to pretend that their news aggregation is about news or profit and not about running social experiments to see what tracks public interest or being in a position to shape public opinion by surfacing the news it chooses but also without paying for content?

Even so, there is a societal interest in objective news being available to the public, which means that search engines should be required to carry such content, profitable or not. All the more so due to Google's monopolistic grip on the search engine market.
- This was more a stunt because France is demanding Google pay to link to news sites. It's the opposite of whether search engines should be required to list them
  
  If that's what the French want, then it's Google's obligation to comply and simply adjust advertising rates as needed.