Old paradigms are dying in the world of the web. The current argument of News Corp (and other interested parties) is that search engines that give access to news content are engaging in theft. The argument is that by giving access to content so easily,with a simple search query,and providing access to a site,the newspaper can’t make money out of their content.
While there is a lot of rubbish online,it is an astonishing source of information,allowing you to check and in many cases verify the things that are reported. The recent iranian elections were the high-point of citizen journalism,while the Denial of Service and hacking attacks against the Melbourne Film Festival would,arguably,have been the low.
Here’s the latest report on news online. Google has agreed to present content slightly differently to appease certain sections of the newspaper industry.
However,Google’s original position still holds true:Any website owner can opt-out from their website being being indexed and their content displayed in search results with a single line of code,which is:
META NAME=”ROBOTS”CONTENT=”NONE,NOARCHIVE
This tells Google (and any other search engine) that no content is to be indexed,nor is it to be archived.
Truly,this gives a very clear indication of the storm in a teacup that News Limited (and other interested parties) are involved in. They can exclude their content very easily,so their continued attacks on Google and,by default the web,are unnecessary.
However,the allegation by Dow Jones chief executive Les Hinton that links and republishing of news equals theft is disingenious;as long as there is a link to the original content,this is a good thing for your website as it gives you an incoming,relevant link. Many website owners are capitalising on this and their websites rise in search results as a result.
And as for the suggestion that free content is worthless,you can be the judge just by getting online and getting help with all manner of things because of the kindness and expertise of strangers.
The web is a great leveller,and to ignore its power is to miss one of the biggest revolutions of our age.
Update
Here’s further reporting from various newspapers:
