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But the value of that service is because of Google's monopoly position in search in Germany (where its market share is in the 90's last I heard; much higher tha
by azakai 12y ago
But the value of that service is because of Google's monopoly position in search in Germany (where its market share is in the 90's last I heard; much higher than in the US).
In other words, the newspapers have no choice but to take whatever terms Google offers them. That's a very bad state of competition in the search market. A search monopoly in Germany gives Google a huge amount of power over not only search but other industries, even the news media.
- shakethemonkey 12y agoYou either have snippet-royalties or you have viable and useful search engines that operate without a paywall. They are mutually exclusive. If royalty negotiations were required for all content before a snippet could be used, either the search engine will index only a few major players (only the head of the long tail), or the cost of obtaining agreements would exceed any potential revenues. It's not because of a monopoly player in the market, the dysfunction applies to all potential search engines. And the minor players in such a regime would be even at a greater disadvantage, lacking the resources to come to arrangements. Be careful what you wish for.