Rupert Murdoch is committed to taking his ball away, refusing to play with Google, and more specifically with Google News. But according to an interview with Google product manager, Jason Cohen, that could mean his content drops off the map entirely. Is Google exclusion about to topple Murdoch’s empire?
If News Corp allows Google’s search bots inside their paywall, they’ll probably be fine. But block Google altogether and it’s a different story – it just won’t appear in web searches, putting a huge dent in its audience.
Cohen also says that though Google News doesn’t actively treat subscription content differently, it’s not likely to perform as well:
“Subscription content won’t do particularly well in search results because of user behaviour. By and large people don’t want to pay for a lot of that content.”
Cohen was also clear that organisations were free to deal with Microsoft or Yahoo and bypass Google entirely. But as the biggest search engine, his implication was clear – it won’t do you much good.
With Google’s Chrome browser headed for Mac OS X and the Google Chrome OS allegedly arriving within weeks, should media organisations really be telling it to shove off, or embracing Google and working on a joint system to squeeze more cash from their content?
Out now | £free | Google News (via Search Engine Land)
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