Russia To Act Against Google if Sputnik, RT Get Lower Search Rankings (reuters.com)

Paresh Dave and Jack Stubbs, reporting for Reuters: The Kremlin will take action against Alphabet's Google if articles from Russian news websites Sputnik and Russia Today are placed lower in search results, the Interfax news service cited Russia's chief media regulator as saying on Tuesday. Alexander Zharov, head of media regulator Roskomnadzor, said his agency sent a letter to Google on Tuesday requesting clarification on comments Saturday by Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt about how the Russian websites would be treated in search, according to Interfax. "We will receive an answer and understand what to do next," Interfax quoted Zharov as saying. "We hope our opinion will be heard, and we won't have to resort to more serious" retaliatory measures.

Comments

I'm getting tired of the "Russia narrative" here.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm getting pretty tired of the whole "Russia narrative" that we get subjected to here at Slashdot again and again and again and again.

A Slashdot search for "russia" and a Slashdot search for "linux" both have Thursday October 19, 2017 as the date of the earliest submission listed on the first page of results.

So we get subjected to a submission about Russia just about as often as we get to read something about Linux!

It gets worse when we do a Slashdot search for "programming". The earliest submission on the first page of results if from Saturday October 14, 2017!

So we get subjected to noticeably more Russia submissions than programming submissions.

And a Slashdot search for "scifi" brings us to Saturday May 06, 2017. A Slashdot search for "science fiction" is even worse, taking us all of the way back to Saturday December 19, 2015!

Obviously we get subjected to far more Russia submissions than any having to do with sci-fi.

If we wanted to hear about Russia every single day, then we could just go read the news on CNN or MSNBC or BBC or some other mainstream news site.

The whole point of Slashdot is to learn about technology/science/math/computing-oriented news that the mainstream outlets don't have enough time or incentive to cover.

Yeah, a relevant submission about Russia now and then would be fine, but this constant barrage of "Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia ..." is getting old.

We should be able to read about topics like Linux and programming and sci-fi far more often than about Russia of all things.

The point is...

[wjcofkc]

And this point stretches far beyond just this. Google, with their own corporate culture driven motives, is totally incompetent to focus on anything but the most absolute and fundamental core competencies of their business. This goes for everything under Alphabet. They have been doing a great job of screwing up all kinds of shit lately. They need to remember the core purposes behind their business's and stick with that. Stepping outside of these things in every direction is why I maintain they are they next business too big to fail. As they continue to try and be more than what they are, their fall will be one of those industry shaking overnight type deals. Give it till 2020, no later.