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Spain's 'Google tax'

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41–50 of 58 posts

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#41
post #38

How is this a Google Tax? Websites indexed by Google give permission in their robots.txt file (or lack thereof)

The publishers view robots.txt as a catch-22: be indexed and lose money or refuse to be indexed and lose money. So they're trying a third option: demand to be indexed and demand to be paid.

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#42
post #35
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then Google would be a less valuable search engine. I guess they would sue and eat it in the meantime.

Hardly less valuable. It's not like news search is the killer function of Google's services.

[deleted]

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#43
post #35
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then Google would be a less valuable search engine. I guess they would sue and eat it in the meantime.

Hardly less valuable. It's not like news search is the killer function of Google's services.

I bet there is a tremendous amount of "news searching".

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#44

When they are already in such bad economic shape, why are the Spaniards so eager to push themselves into further irrelevance?

Because Spanish politics is an inbred kind of politics. People joke in Latin America about Spaniards because of their remarkably low knowledge of foreign languages and outside culture, or the fact that they watch American films overdubbed whereas others just watch them with subtitles. It's a subtle thing, but there's a perception, to me not unfounded, that some sectors of Spanish society just don't look outward much,…

> It's a subtle thing, but there's a perception, to me not unfounded, that some sectors of Spanish society just don't look outward much, which is the reason they get these crazy ideas that wouldn't even be considered for a second anywhere else.

Does not that contradicts the fact that, for example, Spain has one of the largest high-speed train networks in the world, that the electricity they produce is >50% from renewable sources, that big civil engineering companies are involved with building major infrastructure around the world (including airport terminals at Heathrow, Sydney), that their medical service is within the top ten in the world, that same-sex marriage has been completely legal (including adoption) for almost a decade now, etc. These facts do not seem to fit your perception of a backwards-looking country.

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#45
post #41
post #38

How is this a Google Tax? Websites indexed by Google give permission in their robots.txt file (or lack thereof)

The publishers view robots.txt as a catch-22: be indexed and lose money or refuse to be indexed and lose money. So they're trying a third option: demand to be indexed and demand to be paid.

how exactly does this require indexing?

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#46

Wait, who wins here? Google would presumably stop returning results for Spanish content to avoiding getting charged, resulting in dropped traffic, and less ad dollars.

The hypothesis is that google is, on the whole, parasitic to news organizations. I think, unlike the hysteria on HN, that it is far from obvious this is wrong. We'll hopefully get to see the results of the experiment.

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#47
Disclaimer: Sort-of-spanish here (Catalan).

These newspapers sales on-paper are dropping alarmingly. They're looking at this as a way to monetize their online versions.

What has already happened: A major spanish social link aggregator (a-la-digg) is boicotting these newspapers.

What will happen: Google will remove them from the index. They'll lose exposure, and therefore make even less.

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#48
post #46

Wait, who wins here? Google would presumably stop returning results for Spanish content to avoiding getting charged, resulting in dropped traffic, and less ad dollars.

The hypothesis is that google is, on the whole, parasitic to news organizations. I think, unlike the hysteria on HN, that it is far from obvious this is wrong. We'll hopefully get to see the results of the experiment.

Looks like the experiment has a good chance of being run soon. If News and Search drop these sites, we'll see whether the 'parasite' has been good or bad for the host.

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#49
post #46

Wait, who wins here? Google would presumably stop returning results for Spanish content to avoiding getting charged, resulting in dropped traffic, and less ad dollars.

The hypothesis is that google is, on the whole, parasitic to news organizations. I think, unlike the hysteria on HN, that it is far from obvious this is wrong. We'll hopefully get to see the results of the experiment.

If this were true, presumably some smart news organizations would be blocking Google from extracting this value by excluding themselves from the index via robots.txt, yet I'm not aware of any.

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#50
post #47

Disclaimer: Sort-of-spanish here (Catalan). These newspapers sales on-paper are dropping alarmingly. They're looking at this as a way to monetize their online versions. What has already happened: A major spanish social link aggregator (a-la-digg) is boicotting these newspapers. What will happen: Google will remove them from the index. They'll lose exposure, and therefore make even less.

Germany introduced a similar law over a year ago, some german news organisations want 11% of Googles world wide gross sales as compensation! They also argue that Google isn't allowed to delist them because of its market power. Theire chance to win this are probably almost zero but they will use that to get a better law next time.
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