Should Google compensate webmasters for their content

Submitted by Patrick Grote on Tue, 01/16/2007 - 2:15pm.

I forget where I came across this article, but it's entitled Google's Role in Paying for Shoe Leather. If you give the article a read it's very well done.

The notes come from a talk given about the fact Google aggregates content from the media and presents it to people. The author's contention is broad, but it boils down to what he says:

Google is a big supporter of the free information ecology but there's no great champion of the paid information ecology. Some publishers are doing great things with paid electronic content, but it's clear that it doesn't have the same mindshare as free content. This only makes sense given the price. But without some support for the paid information ecology, the freedom of the press belongs to those who have the time to blog. Everyone else is locked out.

Fascinating.

Google is an advertising company. As much as people consider them a technology company, their heart is advertising. They deliver eye balls to advertisers through a variety of methods. There most popular method is adsense, which presents ads on websites. The idea is that Google will scan the page, look for keywords, toss in some other factors and deliver ads to a reader.

Adsense ads are a two way street. The advertiser gets prospective clients, while the webmaster gets a cut of the ad revenue paid to Google. This is fantastic for information that is offered for free to internet users. But, the economy of the internet has been changed. Since adsense offers webmasters ways to make money, the focus is put on drawing people who will click on the ads. As the author of the talk notes, this lessens the incentive to provide information that has to be paid for.

Google's role in this is key. If someone takes this article and copies it into their site I wouldn't see any revenue from it. Google, though, will continue to see revenue from it if the other site runs adsense.

Can Google differentiate between the original article and the copy? Most times, no, and this is where the author really addresses the concerns.

Do I think Google should provide for micropayments? No. Do I think Google could do more to help webmasters that provide the content that runs their advertising company? Yes.