Ballsy Google Kicks Belgian Newspapers’ Asses
Sometimes Google just makes me jump up and pump my fist, yelling, “Yes! You show those motherf-ers!” This is definitely one of those times. Google responding to Belgian newspaper’s complaints about being included in Google News and the Google cache, as well as a court ruling that they remove those newspapers from their services, decided to show them who’s boss and banned the newspapers outright from Google Belgium’s search results.
Take a look at this search. It returns zero results, just this message:
In response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed 1237 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read more about the request at ChillingEffects.org.
That’s right: those Belgian newspapers wanted Google to pay for the privelege of sending them readers, so Google is going to take their greed and use it to cut off their legs. Want to bet those papers lose tens of percentages of their traffic? All statistics say yes, and I’ll bet the Hitwise blog is working up a real pretty chart to prove it.
Old, dying media, here’s your lesson for the day: Google doesn’t steal your content, it just points its millions of users at you. That is to your benefit. Don’t blow it next time.
Oh, and Google can basically argue to the judge that it isn’t using dirty tactics, because it simply followed the awful wording of the judge’s ruling:
Order the defendant to withdraw the articles, photographs and graphic representations of Belgian publishers of the French - and German-speaking daily press, represented by the plaintiff, from all their sites (Google News and “cache” Google or any other name within 10 days of the notification of the intervening order, under penalty of a daily fine of 1,000,000.- € per day of delay;
Uh, whoops. Yeah, don’t screw with the Goog.
[…] Good write-up here. […]
Pingback by Cherry Hinton Blues » Don’t take Google for granted. | September 19, 2006
correction:
the title might be a bit misleading:
this only applies to the FRENCH and GERMAN language newspapers of Belgium (as the quote from the judge states).
Keep in mind that more then half of the population of Belgium speaks DUTCH, and accordingly we have Dutch Google lovin’ newspapers.
so an appropriate title would be:
Google kicks Wallon newspapers’ asses.
thank you come again!
Comment by roel | September 19, 2006
Seems to me that in the interest of fairness and full disclosure, Google and ChillingEffecdt should be posting the names of the judge and the attorneys involved,which would clearly be public information in the U.S., and also the names of the newspaper executives who hired the attorneys.
Comment by D.C. Russell | September 19, 2006
[…] Attention is good. It is never, ever bad to show up in search results. Unless of course you don’t want random strangers to find you and know things about you — as a newspaper that is not the case. Filing a court order to get Google to remove all links to you? That’s suicide if you’re in the media business. >> Ballsy Google Kicks Belgian Newspapers’ Asses […]
Pingback by Google to World: Linking is Good « //engtech | September 19, 2006
[…] Ballsy Google Kicks Belgian Newspapers’ Asses » InsideGoogle » part of the Blog News Channel […]
Pingback by Stephan Miller » Google says no to Belgian News | September 19, 2006
[…] Lenssen and Weinberg are cheering Google on their move to obey a Belgian court order and delete content stolen from Belgian newspapers from their caches. That will show those “old, dying media” that Google is not be crossed (actually Weinberg used somewhat more drastic language). […]
Pingback by Lenz Blog » Blog Archive » Agreeing with Google Cheerleaders | September 20, 2006
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Pingback by Sivutuloja » Arkisto » Le Soir pois Googlen indeksistä | September 20, 2006
[…] Hehe, besides that LeSoir isn’t the greatest newspaper anyway. Tags: censor, google, google news, le soir, whoring. Published by Franky September 20th, 2006 […]
Pingback by google kicks belgian newspaper at Am I Famous Now? | September 20, 2006
By “kicks Belgian newspapers’ asses”, you mean “obediently does exactly as Belgian newspapers demand”?
I agree that the newspapers are making a pretty stupid mistake, but it’s them kicking their own asses, not Google.
Comment by Tom Future | September 20, 2006
Tom, Google kicked their asses because it only had to remove them from Google News, but Google removed them entirely. Not appearing in Google News is tough; not appearing in Google Search is the kiss of death.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | September 20, 2006
[…] I don’t know what to say as I read this post. […]
Pingback by Don’t list me on Google! « Through My Words… | September 20, 2006
Now that you’ve wiped the Googlespooge from your chin, Nathan, can we have some sensible reporting please?
Comment by ahem | September 21, 2006
Nathan Weinberg says “Tom, Google kicked their asses because it only had to remove them from Google News, but Google removed them entirely. Not appearing in Google News is tough; not appearing in Google Search is the kiss of death.”
Yet Nathan Weinberg’s own article quotes the court order, with emphasis: “Order the defendant to withdraw… from all their sites (Google News and “cache” Google or any other name within 10 days of the notification of the intervening order…”
Boy, is Nathan Weinberg gonna feel silly when he reads his own article.
Comment by quonsar | September 21, 2006
Ahem: I am very negative on Google more often than I am positive, at least lately, so please allow me to give them a big thumbs up when I think they deserve it.
Quonsar: quoting Nathan Weinberg, uh, myself:
I admit that the judge’s wording can be interpreted to exactly what Google did. However, that was not the intent of the judge, or the newspapers, and that is what makes it so funny.
And I always feel silly
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | September 22, 2006
[…] Ballsy Google Kicks Belgian Newspapers’ Asses » InsideGoogle “Google … banned the newspapers outright from Google Belgium’s search results.” (tags: google newspapers belgium) […]
Pingback by links for 2006-09-21 at BrandBrains | September 22, 2006
[…] Belgian Newspapers Kicked off Google […]
Pingback by On Digital Media » Blog Archive » On Digital Media, Episode #6 | September 23, 2006
[…] Belgian News sources win a case against Google, preventing their news being shown on Google News. Google were forced to display the judgement on the Google.be websites. Google went one step further and interpreted the ruling to remove every reference to all newspaper sites. Now you won’t find any links to these Belgian news sites on Google. Can a commercial website live without being listed on Google? […]
Pingback by Damien Mulley » Blog Archive » The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new - Fluffy Links September 25th 2006 | September 25, 2006
Why is it that the ONLY problems in Belgium arise with the French speaking part? Belgium is a cool country UNTIL you get to the French part then its all hell, they are jerks and have nasty attitudes, just like their French counterparts. Leave it to the French to cause trouble in an way they can. Flemmish people are great!
Comment by Stupid French speaking Belgians | September 27, 2006
From what I understood, the French and German newspapers of Belgium wanted their results available on Google for a limited time only. Google currently doesn’t provide such a service (plus, I wouldn’t appreciate it). Tough luck! They should just have used the appropriate meta tags, preventing Google to show cached entries, and possibly snippets.
Speaking of the Google Cache, I’d still very much like an option to remove those entries. Pretty much all of it is spam or low quality content. Yuch.
(Hm, I wonder what Coolz0r has to say about this matter.)
Comment by TMaster | September 29, 2006
[…] Ballsy Google Kicks Belgian Newspapers’ Asses. […]
Pingback by Weekly Update, September 22, 2006 : Exclusive Concepts Blog | July 10, 2007
Flemish people are cool and dont force you to speak dutch but i worked for Tenforce.com and the project manager was french and he was realy upset because i did not know any french at all and this got me sacked and they refused to pay my wages.
Strange when you think they do work for many Belgium companies !
Comment by Bad employee | November 22, 2007