As complaints mount, Google enables news publishers to limit free content

Over the last several weeks, Google Inc. has frequently found itself in the crosshairs of news publishers. Most recently, media mogul Rupert Murdoch has been accusing the search company and its competitors of "theft" and "misappropriation" of his company's news articles. Services like Google News, which has become a major destination for consumers of online news, generally do not pay for the content it features.

That has caused consternation among news publishers like Murdoch, who largely have been unable to wring a profit from their online news operations even as revenues from traditional print newspapers continue their steep decline.

Google is now taking steps to mollify an irate industry by allowing news publishers more control over which content Google's users can access for free. Yesterday the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant said it would allow news sites to limit the number of free articles that online readers could browse without having registered or subscribed to the site. 

When a user registers at a website, it allows the site owners to provide more effective products and advertising.

Any website -- including those run by news organizations -- has the ability to prevent Google from listing it among the search engine's results -- but Google is now giving news organizations more precise controls over which stories are freely accessible and which require either registration or payment.

Google told news publishers today that they'll also be given more say over which parts of their content are accessible through Google News, the site that collects headlines and news summaries from more than 25,000 news and blog sources.

News sites will be able to decide which of their articles, photos, and other content will be available on the popular news platform -- and which will not. 

-- David Sarno

Murdoch says journalism's future is 'more promising than ever,' but rails against Web 'theft'

Murdoch speaking at the FTC event. Credit: FTC Web site.

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch continued his campaign today to style the digital news media according to his for-pay vision, declaring he was optimistic about journalism's future, but added that in that future, consumers would no longer have free access to expensive news content.

"The future of journalism is more promising than ever, limited only by editors and producers unwilling to fight for their readers and viewers, or government using its heavy hand either to over-regulate or to subsidize," Murdoch said at a meeting at the Federal Trade Commission.

But, he said, "we need to do a better job of persuading consumers that high-quality, reliable news and information do not come free.  Good journalism is an expensive commodity."

One of many newspapers executives and industry observer's to speak at the FTC today, Murdoch used his speech to outline a three-part mandate for newspapers wishing to survive: deliver content to consumers via every possible medium, digital and physical; get them used to the idea that they'll have to pay; and continue agitating for media deregulation.

But the question of whether newspapers should charge online readers has continued to be the most controversial.  For decades, newspapers have made fat profits from print advertisers eager to reach a daily audience.  The problem, said Murdoch, is that "the old business model, based on advertising only, is dead."

"The reason is simple arithmetic: Though online advertising is increasing, the increase is only a fraction of what is being lost from print advertising. That is not going to change, even in a boom."

That's because the in-print classified advertising market upon which newspapers relied has been "decimated" by Web competitors such as Craigslist and Monster.com, Murdoch said.

But Murdoch saved his strongest words for the companies that aggregate news -- Google Inc. among them -- in a now-familiar accusation.

"There are those who think they have a right to take our news content and use it for their own purposes without contributing a penny to its production.  Some rewrite -- at times without attribution -- the news stories of expensive and distinguished journalists who invested days, weeks, or even months on their stories -- all under the tattered veil of fair use." 

"Their almost wholesale misappropriation of our stories is not fair use -- to be impolite, it's theft."

-- David Sarno

What's powering Web apps: Google waving goodbye to Gears, hello to HTML5 [Updated]

Of all the things Google is really good at, patience isn't necessarily one of them.

To prove Web applications like Gmail and Google Docs could be as sophisticated as desktop apps, Google created its own desktop software a couple years ago -- a small utility called Gears. Once it's installed on a user's computer, features like offline caching of e-mails and drag-and-drop file uploading would be unlocked.

Many of those features are beginning to be adopted by HTML5, the next revision to the standard programming language that powers the Web.

For the time being, Gears will still feature a number of tools that can be opened using Firefox and Internet Explorer. The technology is built into Google's Chrome browser.

As Google prepares to release its first beta version of Chrome for the Mac (a developer preview has been available for months), the company is letting the sun set on its Gears project.

"We are excited that much of the technology in Gears, including offline support and geolocation APIs, are being incorporated into the HTML5 spec as an open standard supported across browsers, and see that as the logical next step for developers looking to include these features in their websites," wrote a Google spokesman in an e-mail.

That's great, but HTML5 isn't ready yet, and commercially available browsers don't support it.

'Turkey' searches on Google experience annual surge

Sorry, Istanbul, we're looking for the bird.

Despite there being an entire country named Turkey, it's the yearly American Thanksgiving traditions that leads to a huge boost in Google searches for the term.

Check out the graph at the top illustrating searches for the word "turkey" over the last five years, courtesy of Google Trends.

As you can see, the massive jolt comes around Thanksgiving every year and a smaller one comes around Christmas time.

Google hasn't yet updated its search statistics for today, but we can already see an uptick toward the end of the graph.

Over the last five years, Turkey the country has maintained the top spot where people are searching for "turkey," followed by Britain and the U.S. But during November, it's USA all the way.

"Tryptophan," the amino acid that causes drowsiness after large consumptions of turkey, also sees a stratospheric jump in late-November. We're surprised Web surfers manage to stay awake long enough to type that in -- let alone spell it correctly.

-- Mark Milian
twitter.com/markmilian

Distorted photo of Michelle Obama removed from site

An altered photograph of Michelle Obama, which created an international controversy because it popped up as the first result on Google image searches, has been removed by the blog site that had posted it.

The blog, called "Hot Girls," this morning ran an apology in Chinese and in broken English.

The English version reads: "I am very sorry for this article, and that this is the program automatically issued a document from the article. Do not the subject of race and politics make the discussion too radical and sincere hope that the world is very peaceful."

The distorted photo had shown the first lady with monkey-like features. Google had declined to remove the site from its search indexing process, citing free-speech concerns.

-- David Colker

Google won't remove distorted Michelle Obama image from search engine

A crudely altered photograph of Michelle Obama, which often comes up as the first result on a Google image search of her name, will not be removed from the company's search process despite protests that the depiction is racist and repugnant.

"It's offensive to many people, but that alone is not a reason to remove it from our search index," Google spokesman Scott Rubin said. "We have, in general, a bias toward free speech."

The image, which depicts the first lady as having monkey-like features, is posted on a blog called "Hot Girls" without explanation. The blog post also contains several legitimate photographs of Michelle Obama. (The image is also posted on other sites that get high spots.) 

Although Google won't alter the search result process that places the offending image in top spots, the company placed a house advertisement above it with the headline, "Offensive Search Results." Clicking on the ad takes the user to a statement that says, "We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google."

The statement apologizes "if you've had an upsetting experience using Google," but it states that a site is not removed from its process unless the content is illegal or violates the company's webmaster guidelines. Rubin said there was nothing in the guidelines that deals with this kind of imagery.

Google has posted similar statements in rare instances, most notably in 2004 when searches on "Jew" resulted in the top spot going to a virulently anti-Semitic site. Rubin said the statement is sometimes used in situations when there are "offensive search results on an innocuous query."

The "Hot Girls" blog has an additional Google connection: It was produced using Blogger, an online tool owned by the search company. And it resides on the Blogger platform, which provides online real estate for blogs and is also owned by Google.

Rubin said Blogger users have to adhere to the site's terms of service, but he was unaware of any language in that agreement that would affect the use of the Obama depiction.

A different website containing the same depiction was banned by Google several days ago, but only because the site was deemed to contain malware that could spread a virus or similar online malady. When a site is dropped from Google's index, the search engine will not present it as a result.

-- David Colker

Google teams up with TiVo to give advertisers a clearer picture

Google and TiVo have been responsible for a good deal of anxiety within cable and network television circles. Put both together in the same sentence, and you have the potential need for some serious psychotherapy.

Yes, the two Silicon Valley companies are teaming up. Google, which sells television and online ads, today said it agreed to subscribe to TiVo's user data.

Here's where the fear and loathing come in. Google promises that advertisers pay only when their ads are seen. But TiVo lets viewers fast-forward through commercials. Now, with TiVo's data, collected from millions of digital video recorders across the country, Google can tell exactly which of those commercials are being bypassed. If all the commercials are being skipped, the channel gets no money. It's easy to see why TV executives get heartburn over this.

Google currently has an agreement with EchoStar to sell ads on its Dish Network and collect similar data from the satellite TV company's subscribers.

Information is the stock and trade of Google, which distinguishes itself by its ability to tell advertisers how often their ads are seen. On the Internet, that's a relatively trivial trick to tally up "clicks" or "impressions." But that's harder for television.

"In general, the feeling is that TV needs more accountability for the audience it is delivering to advertisers," said Todd Juenger, vice president of TiVo's 4-year-old audience research business, said in an interview. "Right now, TV is kind of fuzzy. It is such a powerful medium, but it suffers from a lack of tools to measure its impact. We help to provide those tools."

Today, the 800-pound gorilla is Nielsen Co., whose TV show ratings determine how much networks can charge for ads on certain shows. But Nielsen focuses on how many people watch a given show.

Google, however, wants second-by-second feedback on whether people are watching ads and who is watching them. Through its deal with EchoStar, Google already processes more than 1 billion channel clicks a day to determine whether a client's ads are seen, at least by satellite TV customers.

"Now we have TiVo data to add breadth and depth," said Mike Steib, director of emerging platforms at Google.

Steib and Juenger are cautious to add that the data are "anonymized," so Google and advertisers cannot trace viewing behavior back to any individual.

They also argue that networks have little to fear. About 3 in 10 companies that buy TV ads through Google have never advertised on TV before, Steib said. "Our system makes it easy for people to buy TV ads," he said. "We're lowering the barriers to entry, which has the effect of growing the market."

Juenger delivered a similarly soothing message: "More and more marketing dollars are being directed to Internet and search largely because of the accountability those mediums offer. If you are confident that you’re getting what you’re paying for, you’re more inclined to pay. To the extent that we can do that for TV, that ought to stimulate demand."

In this economy, TV executives are likely to embrace anything that stimulates demand. Even Google and TiVo.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

Image courtesy of Dan Hontz.

Google gives first demonstration of its Chrome operating system

Google posted a video to explain its new operating system, Chrome OS, due out next year. Credit: YouTube.

Google's new Chrome OS operating system, which is designed to bypass computer hard drives and work totally by way of the Internet, got its first public preview today. 

The system, due out about a year from now, could eventually pose the first real competition for Microsoft's and Apple's consumer operating systems since the earliest days of home computers. Chrome's main difference is that applications and other materials that now exist on hard drive will instead live online.

It will be available, at least at first, only for the small netbook computers that use solid-state drives.

One of the main advantages of the operating system, as extolled by Google product manager Sundar Pichai, is speed. The entire online system popped up on the screen of a demonstration computer less than 10 seconds after rebooting.

Pichai compared it to hitting the "on" button of a TV. "You turn it on, and you should be on the Web," he said in a press conference webcast from company headquarters. 

Not surprisingly, the on-screen interface of the operating system looked much like a browser. On top were tabs showing programs for e-mail, documents, a chess game, a book e-reader and more.

Pichai showed how panels that popped up from the bottom of the screen (around Google, they've been nicknamed "moles") can be used to play music, instant message or show a quick video while browsing the Web or doing work.

The aim for consumers, Pichai said, is simplicity.  "We just want computers to be delightful and work," he said.

One of the keys to Chrome OS' success likely will be how much users can actually do with it, given that it won't be using much of the software in common use now. To that end, Pichai announced that, as of today, the company was making the system's computer code public so that outside developers could start making applications for it.

Google released an animated video on YouTube (which it owns) to explain Chrome OS to the public.

-- David Colker

Google Maps' Street View under Swiss scrutiny

Google Map's Street View of Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue. Credit: Google Inc..

Internet search giant Google is facing court action in Switzerland because it isn’t meeting the country’s demands for tighter privacy protection with its Google Maps' Street View service, according to a Swiss government official.

Hanspeter Thuer, data protection commissioner, announced today in a statement that he plans to bring a suit against Google in the Federal Administrative Tribunal, according to an Agence France Presse report.

Thuer said Google rejected many of his recommendations after it went online in August.

Street View is a feature that lets users pick a point on a map and see a panoramic street-level image of the surroundings. By adjusting the location of the point, a user can take a virtual walk down the street. Google constructs the images from panoramic photos taken by cars it has equipped with cameras.

Faces had not been sufficiently blurred, and people were concerned about being shown near "sensitive locations, for example outside hospitals, prisons or schools," he said.

Google argues that it provides measures to protect privacy by making it possible for people to contact Google and ask to have pictures of their property removed from Street View. The company also said it spoke with privacy regulators and gave them an opportunity to raise questions.

“We’re proud of the blurring technology we’ve developed for Street View, and are confident the product is completely legal, but we wanted to go the extra mile to address Herr Thuer’s concerns,” the company said in a blog post.

Google ran into a similar problem in the U.S. this year when a Pennsylvania couple took the company to court, saying the feature was an invasion of privacy. A judge threw out the case in February, siding with Google, which said "complete privacy does not exist" and argued that photos and building plans of the couple's home were already available to the public on local government websites.

In the blog post, Google indicated it planned to fight the Swiss case as well: “We will vigorously defend Street View in court and we’re committed to continue bringing the benefits to Swiss users.”

-- W.J. Hennigan

Google launches flu shot locator

Advertising for flu shots at a clinic in New York. Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Feel a fever coming on?

Now that flu season is in full swing, people are scrambling for a vaccine. And the rush is even more hectic because of the H1N1 scare.

To deal help with the high demand, Google Maps has launched a flu shot finder at google.com/flushot. It provides users with the locations of clinics that provide seasonal and H1N1 vaccines.

The site works like Google Maps. Enter a ZIP Code or the name of a city and the closest sites will pop up. Clinics offering H1N1 shots are blue. Those offering seasonal shots are red. And those providing both are half red and half blue.

Google worked in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Department of Health and Human Services on the project. The locater will eventually be linked on www.flu.gov and the American Lung Assn. website.

Be aware that many locations that are shown on the site are currently out of stock, Google said. So make sure you call ahead.

-- W.J. Hennigan