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November 10, 2009
Google To Murdoch: Use No Index Or Just Ask
News Corp. Founder and CEO Rupert Murdoch claims Google is stealing their content - the "content kleptomaniacs" as he has termed them. As Greg Jarboe's article below details this could be a major problem for News Corp web sites. Watch the embedded video to hear Murdoch's position.
The UK Telegraph quotes an unnamed Google spokesperson suggesting Murdoch just tell them they want to be dropped from the Google News index.
"Publishers put their content on the web because they want it to be found, so very few choose not to include their material in Google News and web search. But if they tell us not to include it, we don't," the Telegraph quotes.
"If publishers want their content to be removed from Google News specifically all they need to do it tell us."
Murdoch's interview with Sky News shows he may be a little out of touch with how the web works and how to use the traffic from search engines. I wrote an article suggesting he allow more web savvy people to deal with this issue.
The biggest problem with the current situation is that without a solid web approach and the increasing decline in newspaper circulation, there will definitely see a loss in the quality of journalism and in the range of stories that get covered. The Fifth Estate needs help - but battling with Google is not the way to help it.
Interestingly, in the interview Murdoch said there were no news or blog sites that were making big money or more than a couple of million dollars - must be nice to think of those numbers as small change. He obviously misses the power of large online communities and the amount of money they are generating.
Posted by Frank Watson on November 10, 2009 6:41 AM
Comments
I don't think google will steal content if the author clearifies it.
Mike from Drop Ship November 10, 2009 8:17 AM
This alleged statement by a Google representative is typical of their elitist attitude and is actually untrue.
In addition to their News pages, Google also includes those pages in their general search results, as is demonstrated by searching "Fox News Iraq War" on Google. You will find Fox News commentary clearly listed on Google.
And by clicking the cached version of the page which is displayed by Google just under the description, you can also see that Google has indeed made a copy of the copyrighted material and stored it within their database.
So Murdoch is correct, they will need to take steps in order to keep Google from freely taking their material by placing code on each page of their material restricting Google from caching or linking to those pages and Google must conform.
Further, this action and this law were instructed and governed before Sergey Brin was out of grade school and was recognized by the W3 consortium and mandated by International Law, not Google.
Joe G November 10, 2009 2:48 PM
Whatever. Murdoch is a dinosaur, the meteor has struck the planet, and King Tyrannosaurus Rupert doesn't want to let go of a dying age.
Most websites have copyrighted content on them. Should Google stop indexing and caching all the websites? Just because the big bag sly Fox is a huge evil corporation doesn't make their copyrighted material any more important than mine.
Roe November 10, 2009 3:41 PM
Excuse me... "big BAD sly Fox." Though I think the point was made.
Roe November 10, 2009 3:44 PM
@Roe - you're joking, right? Just because you disagree with his politics, his business or the color of his shoes doesn't give you, Google, or anyone else the right to freely take copyrighted content. Period.
If you don't like it or think that law is outdated - fine. I may even agree with you. But as Joe G rightly points out: Murdoch is correct here. It's Google's job to obey the law - even if that means to stop indexing and caching, not the other way around.
So if you don't like it - advocate to change the law, but don't advocate breaking it! Likewise, if NewsCorp fails to 'get it' and step up into the current century, then let them go the way of the dinosaur.
Andrew K November 10, 2009 8:09 PM
Yeah, so have any of you EVER heard of fair use?
Beth November 17, 2009 9:42 AM
They should just no index and be done - journalists know that they put something on a web site and the engines will crawl and list it... they courted Google to get included initially and okay if they think it is the wrong decision they can stop it all with the no index
Aussiewebmaster November 17, 2009 9:57 AM
