Google "hugely dangerous" and coming after local press next

[katty]

more: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=39360&c=1

Google "hugely dangerous" and coming after local press next
6 November 2007

By Martin Stabe

Google is “hugely dangerous” and is one of the major preoccupations of News Corp, according to the editor-in-chief of Times Online.

Anne Spackman, speaking as part of a panel about the future of newspapers at the Society of Editors conference, said "the number one topic of conversation at News Corp is Google."

“Its move into DNA is a massive threat and I wonder whether we will all start feeling that they are behaving a bit too much like big brother," she said.

Talking afterwards to Press Gazette Spackman said: “Google now affects everything we do online".

Because it drives such an enormous proportion of search traffic, newspapers are paying careful attention to optimising their sites for Google. This means that sites’ traffic is highly susceptible to minor changes to the way Google’s search algorithm works. She noted that when Google tweaked its search algorithm last month, WashingtonPost.com was one of several major sites whose pager rank temporarily dropped. oogle also controls a large amount of advertising online, particularly since its acquisition this year of online advertising firm DoubleClick.

[Yael]

1. If Murdoch owned Google he would think it is the greatest thing since the invention of puppies

[katty]

2. yup, indeed

[depakid]

3. Oddly enough, Google news defaults now bring up a host of Murdoch publications

apparently a change occurred a couple of weeks back when they tweaked page rank.

I don't much bother with the American version anymore- though the Brit, Ozzie and Canadian versions are still pretty decent reviews.

[truedelphi]

4. Splain please - how do we use the Brit and other versions? n/t

[Lautremont]

5. google.ca, google.uk, etc.

[depakid]

6. They're pretty cool

and you can set them to default, if you want (mine defaults to Oz).

You can see the links at the bottom of the page.