Fair Syndication Consortium Calls Foul On Google
December 2, 2009
In most pie charts that feature Google, the search giant dominates the circle, and a new one from the Fair Syndication Consortium follows that pattern. Unfortunately for Google's reputation, the chart's titled "How unlicensed use of U.S. newspaper content is monetized."
According to the Fair Syndication Consortium, newspaper articles are getting copied left and right, with about 112,000 having been more or less duplicated in full in the last 30 days. Some big corporations are sort of responsible for (or are at least contributing to) the illegal use, too.
AOL was assigned about 3 percent of the blame in terms of monetization. Next up, at 5 percent, was Audience Science. Then came the search industry's big three, with Microsoft placing third (also at 5 percent), Yahoo coming in second (at 19 percent), and Google topping the list (at 53 percent).
This finding is almost sure to spur on Rupert Murdoch and a few other media figures as they push for publishers to block Google. Even if there's not a direct line, it very much supports the concept that search companies steal money from news organizations.
Still, there are valid arguments to be made about free publicity, and Google's been clear that it's willing to cut off content producers upon request. There's also its recent concession on the First Click Free front to consider.
Have You Read This?
> Minds Of The Media Gather To Discuss The Future Of News
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> The Traffic News Corp. Would Lose Without Google
Bing Managed Big Gain In October
November 12, 2009
According to new data from Experian Hitwise, October was the month of the underdog with respect to the search market. The two search companies that usually dominate lost a bit of share, while Bing (and to a lesser degree, Ask) gained ground.
Let's start with the success stories. Bing's market share rose from 8.96 percent in September to 9.57 percent in October, which represents an increase of 6.8 percent. That's nothing to sneer at, even if Bing remains solidly in third place.
Fourth-place Ask also made a small amount of progress as its share increased from 2.56 percent to 2.62 percent - a jump of 2.3 percent that's far better than a dip.
Meanwhile, Google came sort of close to losing its grasp on the 70 percent mark, slipping from 71.08 percent to 70.60 percent on a month-to-month basis. And Yahoo fared about the same, moving from a market share of 16.38 percent to 16.14 percent.
As always, it's not smart to read too far into a single month's search report. Still, Experian Hitwise also recorded a Yahoo loss (and Ask gain) in September, so a trend may be starting to emerge.
Have You Read This?
> Bing Gets A Bunch Of New Search Features
