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The Google News Dilemma

Posted by timothy on from the to-beta-or-not-to-beta dept.

(54)T-Dub writes "Wired has an interesting article about the status of news.google.com. It has been 3 years since its release and the major bugs have long since been ironed out, so why is it still in beta? Apparently, it's because Google hasn't been able to figure out how to make money off of it. Slapping up some Google Adwords seems like the obvious solution. The problem is that Google News has multi-million-dollar news publishers scared because of the incredibly low-cost method that Google has employed to bring us 'up the minute news.' Currently they are able to scrape the content of news sites under fair use because they are not using it for commercial purposes. Once they move away from the nonprofit, educational purposes of their system they can expect to be deluged by cease and desist orders. Before you break out the tissue box though, remember that google sent their own cease and desist orders to a Google News RSS feeder a few months back."

7 of 310 comments (clear)

  1. For more information... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...visit Google News.

  2. This has been known on Slashdot for some time. by chill · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Create some cool web portal things
    2. Drive traffic to it
    3. ??
    4. Profit!

    Google, like the rest of the world, is still stuck on figuring out #3. :-)

    -Charles

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  3. Re:Bad Grammar...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a play on "betta not make money" or "better not make money"

  4. Re:I disagree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful


    One major bug still exists -- the bot cannot separate news from opinion and other trash. It's a sloppy orgy of miscellaneous content that should somehow be more carefully organized before being released.

    Neither can CBS, FOX, CNN, NPR ...

  5. Re:Bad Grammar...? by nomadic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Am I reading it wrong, or is the title of that Wired article (Google News: Beta Not Make Money) really bad grammar? Do they have editors over there?

    Tarzan like job at wired but miss jungle.

  6. Don't underestimate Google... by Hobbex · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Obviously there is a plan here, and it is very simple. Google are simply going to let the service run as beta, until it has enough users (and it is getting there) that the shoe is on the other foot: and the news providers will WANT to be screen scraped.

    I mean, when news pages start seeing that 90% of their article reads are referred from news.google.com, or that do reader research and find that Google News is the number one way that people learn to read their site, then Google can start gladly removing anybody who asks. I have started reading several newssites regularly that I first found via Google News.

  7. Re:Bad Grammar...? by SiliconEntity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Google News: Beta Not Make Money" is a pun!

    "Google News Better Not Make Money" or else they'll be sued because it will have become commercial use, see?