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Search Engine Journal reports that Google has just announced an agreement to pay Australian news publishers who agree to participate in its Google News Showcase.
Google just announced it will begin paying for Australian News with publishers who have agreed to participate in the Google News Showcase program. It's unclear whether or not this move will be enough to stop proposed Australian legislation that threatens to force the search engine giant to pull its services out of the country.
Google Offers to Pay for News
In a seeming backtrack to threats, Google announced it would pay for Google News through their Google News Showcase program. Here's what the company said:
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"To meet growing reader and publisher needs, last year we increased our investment in news partnerships and launched Google News Showcase. Today we are happy to announce we are rolling out an initial version of the product to benefit users and publishers in Australia, with a keen focus on leading regional and independent publishers given the importance of local information and the role it plays in people's everyday lives. News Showcase is designed to bring value to both publishers and readers by providing a licensing program that pays publishers to curate content for story panels across Google services, and gives readers more insights into the stories that matter."
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What do Australians Make of All This?
Will this stop lawmakers from pushing on with regulations that will further squeeze the search engine company? It's hard to say, but here are some views from down under. Ash Nallawalla is a digital marketing expert from Melbourne, Australia:
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"The average Australian has shown little to no interest in what is seen as a struggle between two large entities - Google versus some TV companies and News Corporation. At best, many think that Google will no longer be available to them in any of its products. Google is not threatening to block Aussie IP addresses, and I doubt that Google dot com dot au will be shut down. In a quick check I made, Google dot com was able to give me fairly usable local results to buy a pizza. There will not be a need to find another search engine."
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SEO Professional Nigel Mordaunt, from New South Wales, Australia says local businesses depend on Google search, and they're worried:
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"Business owners are generally concerned as local businesses thrive from Google and are worried about how this could potentially impact their sales. Australian business owners love google and want it to stay. As an SEO I think our country is being completely unreasonable. If the news stations really think it's unfair they can noindex their article/post and not have it appear on the search engines. Being on google is their choice. I praise google for working with the Australian government. We were extremely worried about search being pulled as our current government is taking hard stances on many subjects within our country with regards to Google and other technology companies."
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Has Google Offered Too Little Too Late?
Google says it's working on additional agreements with more news organizations. Here's how the company itself puts it:
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"Starting today, a growing number of Australian publishers, leading examples of the best of local and regional journalism, will be paid to provide content for News Showcase...As this early version of News Showcase rolls out, the partnerships will provide financial support for some of the country's most respected independent, local and regional publications including The Canberra Times, The Illawarra Mercury, The Saturday Paper, Crikey, The New Daily, InDaily and The Conversation. We are looking forward to bringing more Australian media partners on board in the coming weeks and months as we further build out the experience for publishers and users."
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