4 ms·

Based on the blog article, it seems like the main thing they're trying to solve is the payment system (use Google payment to easily subscribe). If that's true,

by kosei 9y ago

Based on the blog article, it seems like the main thing they're trying to solve is the payment system (use Google payment to easily subscribe). If that's true, it's a much different and less exciting offer than the OP's linked page which seemed like a much larger initiative.

kyrra 9y ago
Edited the original comment, thanks for pointing that out. It looks like there were 3 blog posts from Google about the whole thing.
danso 9y ago
The subscription system sounds like it's one part of this initiative. And if it is indeed the "main thing" then I think we should give Google some credit for being serious with this initiative. A payments system is a boring problem but it is the one most core to news organizations' current existential problems. It's not as sexy as using NLP to categorize news archives perhaps, but it's the most important to news orgs' survival.
- wnissen 9y ago
  I just wish they would bring back the old patron system, where I didn't see ads and some small amount of money went to the sites I visited, without a subscription. Because I want to support good journalism, wherever it is found, but there's no way I'm ever going to sign up for $3/mo for the Miami Herald to read three articles a year.
  - jacques_chester 9y ago
    You're thinking of Google Contributor. It seems likely that these are teams working in different parts of Google.
- kuschku 9y ago
  A payment system that’s only useful with a credit card is useless in many countries, though. And Google has managed to fuck up every payment solution they’ve built yet.
  - kyrra 9y ago
    (I work on Google Payments, opinions are my own) Google probably accepts the most forms of payment of any single company in the world (just a guess), but which forms of payment are accepted on any given product under Google will vary. For example, Adwords[0] has the list of supported forms of payment by country. While in Play we things like Paypal, direct_carrier_billing, and gift cards. I have no clue what the News Initiative is supporting, but I could guess it will be credit/debit cards from around the world. Google has built a LOT of payments projects. Some have definitely failed, but there are many that you don't notice because it will be supporting specific flows in specific countries or products. [0] https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375433?hl=en https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375433?hl=en
    - kuschku 9y ago
      And not a single one of them supports SEPA payments. I had to get a CC just for the Google Play Developer fee. CCs are very uncommon in Germany, everything – including Amazon.de – supports SEPA payments. But Google does not. So, the "Google probably accepts the most forms of payment of any single company in the world (just a guess)" statement may be technically true, but it doesn’t help at all.
nickysielicki 9y ago
Read between the lines. > During breaking news or crisis situations, stemming the tide of misinformation can be challenging. Speculation can outrun facts as legitimate news outlets on the ground are still investigating. At the same time, bad actors are publishing content on forums and social media with the intent to mislead and capture people’s attention as they rush to find trusted information online. This is just yet another temper tantrum from Silicon Valley liberals who cannot rationalize recent political movements any other way, so they think censorship is the solution. They think that people seeking out content that they agree with is some kind of new problem, as if this never existed within the grocery-checkout-isle tabloids for decades. This is an excuse to elevate content that they agree with and delegitimize sources that are not owned by large media conglomerates, which lean left on the whole. There is no such thing as fake news, there is only inaccurate news. There are plenty of accurate stories that are not covered by the mainstream media, and there are plenty of fringe outlets that release accurate stories. What Google is saying here is that they see no issues with wholly backing the entrenched media groups as the sole arbiter of what constitutes news and what shouldn't be covered. People don't have the right to seek stories they find interesting; middle America is just too stupid for their own good, I guess. Even mentioning this will probably make this comment [dead], but Seth Rich was murdered, Julian Assange has commented about connections, his digital footprint leaves a lot of motive for being the DNC leaker, details of the leaks suggest someone locally copied the files, and it's simply discredited as a crazy conspiracy story by the media. People don't seek out nontraditional outlets because they want to get worse news, and it has nothing to do with clickbait. It has to do with the fact that the biases within traditional media lead to them not cover real and legitimate stories, and before the internet there was nowhere else to get information, so it worked out fine. The internet changed that, but what Google employees are saying here is they'd like to return to the past.
- danso 9y ago
  What does Seth Rich have to do with any of this? Surely you have better examples of stories under-covered by the media, especially when Fox News retracted its story and is currently being sued by Rich's family?
- danso 9y ago

by kosei 9y ago

kyrra 9y ago

Edited the original comment, thanks for pointing that out. It looks like there were 3 blog posts from Google about the whole thing.

danso 9y ago

The subscription system sounds like it's one part of this initiative. And if it is indeed the "main thing" then I think we should give Google some credit for being serious with this initiative. A payments system is a boring problem but it is the one most core to news organizations' current existential problems. It's not as sexy as using NLP to categorize news archives perhaps, but it's the most important to news orgs' survival.

wnissen 9y ago
I just wish they would bring back the old patron system, where I didn't see ads and some small amount of money went to the sites I visited, without a subscription. Because I want to support good journalism, wherever it is found, but there's no way I'm ever going to sign up for $3/mo for the Miami Herald to read three articles a year.
- jacques_chester 9y ago
  You're thinking of Google Contributor. It seems likely that these are teams working in different parts of Google.
kuschku 9y ago
A payment system that’s only useful with a credit card is useless in many countries, though. And Google has managed to fuck up every payment solution they’ve built yet.
- kyrra 9y ago
  (I work on Google Payments, opinions are my own) Google probably accepts the most forms of payment of any single company in the world (just a guess), but which forms of payment are accepted on any given product under Google will vary. For example, Adwords[0] has the list of supported forms of payment by country. While in Play we things like Paypal, direct_carrier_billing, and gift cards. I have no clue what the News Initiative is supporting, but I could guess it will be credit/debit cards from around the world. Google has built a LOT of payments projects. Some have definitely failed, but there are many that you don't notice because it will be supporting specific flows in specific countries or products. [0] https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375433?hl=en https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375433?hl=en
  - kuschku 9y ago
    And not a single one of them supports SEPA payments. I had to get a CC just for the Google Play Developer fee. CCs are very uncommon in Germany, everything – including Amazon.de – supports SEPA payments. But Google does not. So, the "Google probably accepts the most forms of payment of any single company in the world (just a guess)" statement may be technically true, but it doesn’t help at all.

nickysielicki 9y ago

Read between the lines. > During breaking news or crisis situations, stemming the tide of misinformation can be challenging. Speculation can outrun facts as legitimate news outlets on the ground are still investigating. At the same time, bad actors are publishing content on forums and social media with the intent to mislead and capture people’s attention as they rush to find trusted information online. This is just yet another temper tantrum from Silicon Valley liberals who cannot rationalize recent political movements any other way, so they think censorship is the solution. They think that people seeking out content that they agree with is some kind of new problem, as if this never existed within the grocery-checkout-isle tabloids for decades. This is an excuse to elevate content that they agree with and delegitimize sources that are not owned by large media conglomerates, which lean left on the whole. There is no such thing as fake news, there is only inaccurate news. There are plenty of accurate stories that are not covered by the mainstream media, and there are plenty of fringe outlets that release accurate stories. What Google is saying here is that they see no issues with wholly backing the entrenched media groups as the sole arbiter of what constitutes news and what shouldn't be covered. People don't have the right to seek stories they find interesting; middle America is just too stupid for their own good, I guess. Even mentioning this will probably make this comment [dead], but Seth Rich was murdered, Julian Assange has commented about connections, his digital footprint leaves a lot of motive for being the DNC leaker, details of the leaks suggest someone locally copied the files, and it's simply discredited as a crazy conspiracy story by the media. People don't seek out nontraditional outlets because they want to get worse news, and it has nothing to do with clickbait. It has to do with the fact that the biases within traditional media lead to them not cover real and legitimate stories, and before the internet there was nowhere else to get information, so it worked out fine. The internet changed that, but what Google employees are saying here is they'd like to return to the past.

danso 9y ago
What does Seth Rich have to do with any of this? Surely you have better examples of stories under-covered by the media, especially when Fox News retracted its story and is currently being sued by Rich's family?
danso 9y ago