The Italian government is currently checking Google for antitrust violations. Several newspapers in Italy are claiming that when they told Google not to list their content on Google News, Google also delisted their results from the rest of the Google search engine.
Anyone with a website knows how bad it is to not be listed on Google. After all, the majority of people online find content through the search giant. And the more page views these news sites get, the more money they make from advertising. So the accusation is that Google is draining money from the newspapers it does not index (if the accusations are true, which I sort of suspect they aren’t).
This raises an interesting question: does Google have an obligation to find any content online? The Italians seem to be saying yes, but Google is a private business. They can do whatever they want. Depending on how you view Google, however, one can consider the company to be a monopoly, in which case some governments might have special policies they can apply.
But with that in mind, I think all search engines have an obligation to list all content from an ethical standpoint. This is a question of net neutrality. I don’t care if it’s not returning results for the holocaust, governmental abuses, or child porn. Playing the “you’re allowed to see this but not this” game is something I recommend companies avoid whenever possible. It just opens a big can of headaches.
But back to the issue at hand. Google in all likliehood is not blocking news outlets who aren’t on Google News. I think the complains levied were brought by failing companies which are reaching for an excuse. Google pointed out in its rebuttal that it sends a billion page views to news companies via Google News each month. You have to take anything from any company with a grain of salt, but as a news outlet, you’re probably making more money on Google News than off it. Sure, it’s not as much money as these newspapers want, but you can’t always get what you want.
