Google improves collaboration with news websites

This should please some news websites. Google wants to make it easier for them to receive payment for their services. For this purpose, the search engine giant even wants to introduce a completely new tab on the user interface.

A victory for EU copyright law

The problem on which Google’s approach is based is not new. Many websites that provided news for their users complained about the fact that you can read core content to texts already in the short preview of the search engine. In our fast-moving times, many people used this to get information. However, a large proportion then did not read the entire text, but really only the preview. In the end, some large news portals had to accept large losses. In times when the newspaper market is also becoming increasingly digitalized, the frustration is understandable. Now Google wants to accommodate the operators of corresponding websites. As soon as longer contents are visible in Google, the search engine giant wants to facilitate the payment. For this one would like to introduce a new column, in which the news preview contains far more information.

Google buys the rights to this in the form of licenses. Google did not take this step voluntarily. Rather, it is a result of Article 15 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. This stipulates that online platforms such as Google may only display a so-called “short preview” of copyright-protected texts if the publisher or author has given their express consent. However, this does not apply to links and a few short keywords. Last year, Google enlisted the help of several well-known publishers for its so-called “Extended News Preview”. With these the Tech company closed license agreements over the extensive previews.

Licenses ensure fairness

With Google’s new arrangement around extended news previews, many publishers should have been pacified. At the very least, the search engine giant has found open ears in its search for suitable licensing partners. In the meantime, more than 3000 publishers from all over Europe are said to be participating in the new system. By the way, the so-called “Google News Showcase” goes even further. Here, Google users can now gain insight into almost 750 publications. In this way, Google could perhaps distance itself somewhat from increasingly loud accusations that the search engine is a source of fake news. Cooperation with reputable media would put a stop to the spread of fake news.