Earlier this year, Neil Vogel, CEO of People, Inc., hit the headlines when he called Google a “bad actor.” He blamed the tech behemoth for its content theft enabling practices. It’s no secret that publishers are a bit panicked about Google’s growing control over the digital ecosystem. This criticism gets to the heart of their concern—what value is placed on producing fresh, original content versus driving traffic.
For far too long, Google has dictated a publishers’ worth by valuing traffic above all else — even original reporting. Vogel quoted an alarming trend. In the wake of this transition, firms such as BuzzFeed are focusing on producing clickbait headlines instead of quality, substantive journalism. He noted that just three years ago, Google Search was responsible for 65%-70% of referral traffic for most publishers. Now, that number has fallen to the “high 20s” for his firm.
Even with this downturn, Google still provides an estimated “20%-ish” of the traffic to websites. Though in general search giant’s crawling practices have raised ethical questions. Very importantly, Vogel stressed that Google only has one crawler that indexes websites to show up on its search engine. This very crawler collects content to feed its artificial intelligence (AI) training tools.
“Google has one crawler, which means they use the same crawler for their search, where they still send us traffic, as they do for their AI products, where they steal our content,” – Neil Vogel.
This implementation practice has raised alarm bells from many academic publishers. They contend that Google’s practices make it impossible for them to monetize the original content they produce. Vogel adamantly claimed that preventing Google’s crawler from indexing your site is impossible. If publishers choose to go down that path, their websites will no longer be indexed in Google Search, exacerbating the very burdens they face.
Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare has expressed similar sentiments. From his perspective, the way things stand is extremely beneficial for AI companies and extremely detrimental to content creators. He contended derivative works over copyright law. This creates a new layer of complexity on already unclear fair-use issues when AI companies utilize published works.
“I think that it’s a fool’s errand to go down that path, because, in copyright law, typically, the more derivative something is, the more it’s protected under fair use…What these AI companies are doing is they’re actually creating derivatives,” – Matthew Prince.
Vogel’s criticisms extend beyond Google’s crawling practices. He called out the company’s well-known history as a “newsy content kleptomaniac.” He pointed out that there are big internal disputes at Google over the company’s practices and forecasted major sea changes ahead.
“Internally, they’re having massive fights about what they do, and my prediction is that, by this time next year, Google will be paying content creators for crawling their content and taking it and putting it in AI models,” – Matthew Prince.
Vogel’s accusations counterpose an underlying anger among publishers who have come to face a new reality where they are at the mercy of these big tech companies. The CEO of People, Inc.—which operates more than 40 other brands, including People, Food & Wine and Travel & Leisure— or at least that’s how he’s coming off, because when it comes to big tech, he’s calling their bluff.
“They know this, and they’re not splitting their crawler. So they are an intentional bad actor here,” – Neil Vogel.
Janice Min, a prominent figure in publishing and CEO of several media brands, voiced her concerns about partnering with AI companies. She emphasized that she feels no incentive right now to work with those kinds of firms based on the environment.
“I don’t see the benefit to us in partnering with any AI company right now,” – Janice Min.
Indeed, on the way there, prince prince made an even bolder claim, arguing that every societal ill from gentrification to fake news can be blamed on Google. He succinctly declared that “everything that’s wrong with the world today is, at some level, Google’s fault.”
As the debate continues over the balance between technology and original content creation, publishers remain vigilant in advocating for their rights and seeking fair compensation for their work. With pressure mounting on tech giants like Google to reconsider their strategies, the publishing industry is poised for potential shifts in how content is treated in the age of AI.