geert lovink on Sun, 23 Mar 2003 13:09:55 +0100 (CET) |
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<nettime> Chuck0: Google News rejects Infoshop News; Indymedia and blogs next? |
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 20:35:25 -0500 From: Chuck0 <chuck@mutualaid.org> To: LBO-talk Subject: Google News rejects Infoshop News; Indymedia and blogs next? Google News rejects Infoshop News; Indymedia and blogs next? from Chuck0 March 21, 2003 Several days ago I issued a call on Infoshop News for people to email Google News (http://news.google.com/), asking that this popular search service index Infoshop News like it was doing several months ago. One of Infoshop News' many readers and supporters sent Google News an email and got back a response which is listed below. It has become apparent that Google News is inventing excuses to not index popular alternative news websites, including Infoshop News. Google News may claim that they offer access to over 4500 sources of news, but their policy in regards to Infoshop News indicates that popular alternative news websites need not be indexed. Shortly after Google announced their fancy news service that was trumpeted as being put together by fancy computer programs, I sent them an email asking that Infoshop New be included in their indexing. After they responded that they couldn't because of "technical reasons," I replied with an email explaining Infoshop News and even provided them with the RSS/RDF file for the website (this is an automated syndicated newsfeed updated three times daily.) Google News started indexing Infoshop News and I assumed that this was still happening until I conducted several test searches on Google News a few weeks ago. It's not clear that the response from Google printed below represents official Google policy. If it does, it would mean that Indymedia, as well as many other news websites and blogs on the web would not be indexed. Not only would this again reinforce the media monopoly, but Google users would lose access to the exciting phenomenon of independent news publishing on the Internet. If you take this rejection letter seriously, there are several problems with it. First of all, the articles on Infoshop News are not all produced by one person. Secondly, we don't have any paid staff, but we feature original content and content from mainstream and alternative news sources. And as many Infoshop News regulars know, I serve very much as a staff editor for Infoshop News. If you suggest Infoshop News and independent news websites like Indymedia, please send an email of support to: news-feedback@google.com <mailto:news-feedback@google.com> If you are interested in signing a letter of support, if Google News continues their stubborness, please send me an email. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net