Comments on: Time for a Rival to Google News? http://www.markevanstech.com/2007/09/02/time-for-a-rival-to-google-news/ A Canadian Take on the Web Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:59:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Kevin Gamble http://www.markevanstech.com/2007/09/02/time-for-a-rival-to-google-news/#comment-6744 Kevin Gamble Sun, 02 Sep 2007 13:38:26 +0000 http://markevanstech.com/2007/09/02/time-for-a-rival-to-google-news/#comment-6744 What Google has done is disintermediate the newspapers and go directly to the source. This is what's happening throughout society -- the middleman is being squeezed. I'm afraid in this instance that the newspapers are helpless to do a thing. There will be no war -- it's already been fought and the newspapers lost. Newspapers don't have to demand anything from Google--not that Google would care. They can cut their content off from Google anytime they choose. They have that power right now. They won't do that, however, as Google is as you said their major source of traffic. Building their own portal won't work either. People won't use it. The portal is dead. What Google has done is disintermediate the newspapers and go directly to the source. This is what’s happening throughout society — the middleman is being squeezed. I’m afraid in this instance that the newspapers are helpless to do a thing. There will be no war — it’s already been fought and the newspapers lost.

Newspapers don’t have to demand anything from Google–not that Google would care. They can cut their content off from Google anytime they choose. They have that power right now. They won’t do that, however, as Google is as you said their major source of traffic.

Building their own portal won’t work either. People won’t use it. The portal is dead.

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