Several days ago I issued a call on Infoshop News for people to email
Google News
(http://news.google.com/),
asking that this popular search service index Infoshop News like it was
doing several months ago. One of Infoshop News' many readers and
supporters sent Google News an email and got back a response which is
listed below. It has become apparent that Google News is inventing
excuses to not index popular alternative news websites, including
Infoshop News. Google News may claim that they offer access to over 4500
sources of news, but their policy in regards to Infoshop News indicates
that popular alternative news websites need not be indexed.
Shortly after Google announced their fancy news service that was
trumpeted as being put together by fancy computer programs, I sent them
an email asking that Infoshop New be included in their indexing. After
they responded that they couldn't because of "technical
reasons," I replied with an email explaining Infoshop News and even
provided them with the RSS/RDF file for the website (this is an automated
syndicated newsfeed updated three times daily.) Google News started
indexing Infoshop News and I assumed that this was still happening until
I conducted several test searches on Google News a few weeks ago.
It's not clear that the response from Google printed below represents
official Google policy. If it does, it would mean that Indymedia, as well
as many other news websites and blogs on the web would not be indexed.
Not only would this again reinforce the media monopoly, but Google users
would lose access to the exciting phenomenon of independent news
publishing on the Internet.
If you take this rejection letter seriously, there are several problems
with it. First of all, the articles on Infoshop News are not all produced
by one person. Secondly, we don't have any paid staff, but we feature
original content and content from mainstream and alternative news
sources. And as many Infoshop News regulars know, I serve very much as a
staff editor for Infoshop News.
If you suggest Infoshop News and independent news websites like
Indymedia, please send an email of support to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you are interested in signing a letter of support, if Google News
continues their stubborness, please send me an email.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 23:35:35 -0800 (PST)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Responce from Google
pasted below is the responce i received from google on my request for
infoshop news to be included into google news.
+++++++
Subject: Re: InfoShop News [#1882273]?
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]?
Date: Thu, March 20, 2003 6:50 pm?
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Priority: Normal?
Hello Daniel,
Thank you for your suggestion. We have reviewed
http://www.infoshop.org
and we cannot include it at this time. We are not accepting sites where all articles are produced by one individual. We are looking for sources with current news written by a staff of reporters and edited by a staff editor. We will log your suggestion for future consideration should our constraints change.
Thank you for trying Google News and taking the time to write us.
Regards,
The Google Team
Original Message Follows:
------------------------
From:
Subject: InfoShop News
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 01:32:05 -0800 (PST)
I am writing to encourage your editoral team to include in the new Google news feature, (which I use quite frequently throughout the day) the news reports and services of infoshop.org
This is an informative, reliable, current, and important voice to be added and made available to your users. I think that Google users are a very diverse, educated and informed group of people, and the addition of INFOSHOP NEWS would be seen as a welcome and expansive improvement.
thank you for your attention on this. Daniel
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/03/21/6866697
