Google News in Transition
May 4, 2009
There are some gossip swirls roiling the leaves around the goose pond this afternoon (April 30, 2009). I read in The Wrap here the headline and story “Eric Schmidt on Google’s New Plan for the News”. I scanned the article, and I learned that at a Hollywood party Eric Schmidt was the “most popular guy in the room”. Heady stuff for Sun Microsystems’ former chief technology officer. Dr. Schmidt was popular at Sun for his technical acumen. I am not sure if technical acumen or power is the catnip for the Hollywood glitterati.
The news, according to The Wrap, is that Mr. Schmidt is “aware of the newsprint meltdown.” Here is what The Wrap said:
But Google does have plans for a solution. In about six months, the company will roll out a system that will bring high-quality news content to users without them actively looking for it. Under this latest iteration of advanced search, users will be automatically served the kind of news that interests them just by calling up Google’s page. The latest algorithms apply ever more sophisticated filtering – based on search words, user choices, purchases, a whole host of cues – to determine what the reader is looking for without knowing they’re looking for it. And on this basis, Google believes it will be able to sell premium ads against premium content. The first two news organizations to get this treatment, Schmidt said, will be the New York Times and the Washington Post.
I find this quite interesting, if it is indeed true. My research suggested that the Google was going to allow partners to use the Google platform to generate revenue. You can see where I obtained this idea by reading US2008/0275763.
Maybe the GOOG will do several things simultaneous a method with which the company is quite familiar.
Stephen Arnold, May 1, 2009
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