4 ms·

I wonder if this will have an impact on combating fake news. I would suspect that few people would pay subscriptions for fake news, so there probably isn't a lo

I wonder if this will have an impact on combating fake news. I would suspect that few people would pay subscriptions for fake news, so there probably isn't a lot of that out there. On the other hand, legitimate journalistic content is far more likely to require a subscription. Perhaps this policy change is, in addition to appeasing publishers, part of Google's broader initiatives to promote journalistic reporting and combat fake news.

hueving 9y ago
It will only help with some classes of fake news. I'm sure people will still happily pay for news that lies to match their biases. They already do that right now with which free sites they choose to visit as their 'trusted news sources'.
astura 9y ago
Fake news is spread through social media, not Googled.
- Pyxl101 9y ago
  I'd probably agree that seems to be how it's most widely shared. But note that Google did announce in Feb 2017 that they're changed their algorithm to combat fake news: > Google announced changes to its search algorithm Tuesday that will combat the dissemination of "fake news" and conspiracy theories through new ways to report inaccurate information. > The technology giant will change its search rankings to "help surface more authoritative pages and demote low-quality content," a company executive said in a blog post. This feature aims to prevent issues like the Holocaust denial results that Google saw in December — which placed an article from a neo-Nazi white supremacist website at the top of search results. http://fortune.com/2017/04/25/google-search-algorithm-fake-news/ http://fortune.com/2017/04/25/google-search-algorithm-fake-n... Original source: https://www.blog.google/products/search/our-latest-quality-improvements-search/ https://www.blog.google/products/search/our-latest-quality-i...
rovek 9y ago
I would suggest a lot of fake news is sparked by a headline and an article that goes largely unread.
WA 9y ago
How does this play out? Legitimate news are behind a paywall, fake news free to access, because they make money in other ways. Shouldn’t this actually increase clickthrough to fake news sites?

hueving 9y ago

It will only help with some classes of fake news. I'm sure people will still happily pay for news that lies to match their biases. They already do that right now with which free sites they choose to visit as their 'trusted news sources'.

astura 9y ago

Fake news is spread through social media, not Googled.

Pyxl101 9y ago
I'd probably agree that seems to be how it's most widely shared. But note that Google did announce in Feb 2017 that they're changed their algorithm to combat fake news: > Google announced changes to its search algorithm Tuesday that will combat the dissemination of "fake news" and conspiracy theories through new ways to report inaccurate information. > The technology giant will change its search rankings to "help surface more authoritative pages and demote low-quality content," a company executive said in a blog post. This feature aims to prevent issues like the Holocaust denial results that Google saw in December — which placed an article from a neo-Nazi white supremacist website at the top of search results. http://fortune.com/2017/04/25/google-search-algorithm-fake-news/ http://fortune.com/2017/04/25/google-search-algorithm-fake-n... Original source: https://www.blog.google/products/search/our-latest-quality-improvements-search/ https://www.blog.google/products/search/our-latest-quality-i...

rovek 9y ago

I would suggest a lot of fake news is sparked by a headline and an article that goes largely unread.

WA 9y ago

How does this play out? Legitimate news are behind a paywall, fake news free to access, because they make money in other ways. Shouldn’t this actually increase clickthrough to fake news sites?