(Reuters) - Members of the media look over the Apple iPad 2 during its launch event in San Francisco, California March 2, 2011. Apple unveiled its next generation iPad at an event in San Francisco. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is on indefinite medical leave, led the event. The tablet device contains a dual-core processor, front and rear cameras, is 8.8 millimeters thick. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach (UNITED STATES - Tags: SCI TECH BUSINESS)
NEW YORK |
Fri Feb 25, 2011 4:12pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc made substantial changes to its search engine in a direct attack on companies that churn out low-quality stories and videos.
The results of the improvements to Google's algorithms used to list search rankings over the past few days affected nearly 12 percent of searches, Google said in a blog post on Thursday.
Google launched the clean-up after users urged stronger action against so-called content farms, which rely on armies of low-paid freelancers to crank out stories and videos designed to appear higher on search engine results.
"This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites -- sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful," Google fellow Amit Singhal and principal engineer Matt Cutts wrote in the blog post.
"At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on."
While Google did not cite companies it regards as content farms, the tag is often pinned to Demand Media, Yahoo Inc's Associated Content, and AOL's Seed, which publish stories on such topics as "how to make a paper lantern" or "five ways to sooth dry skin."
A major slice of content farms' revenue is generated through search engines. Demand Media, for instance, said 28 percent of its revenue came from Google in the first nine months of 2010.
"As might be expected, a content library as diverse as ours saw some content go up and some go down in Google search results," Larry Fitzgibbon, Demand Media executive vice president of media and operations, wrote in a blog post on Thursday in response to the Google changes.
"It's impossible to speculate how these or any changes made by Google impact any online business in the long term but at this point in time, we haven't seen a material net impact on our Content & Media business."
Shares of Demand Media, which debuted as a public company in January, fell 1.6 percent to close at $22.96 on the New York Stock Exchange. The company's initial public offering was priced at $17 in January.
Google has been cracking down on others, including retailer J.C. Penney, according to a New York Times report, that try and game Google algorithms to place high in search results.
(Reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by Richard Chang)
original content on reuters
NEW YORK – Google has tweaked the formulas steering its Internet search engine to take the rubbish out of its results. The overhaul is designed to lower the rankings of what Google deems "low-quality" sites.
That could be a veiled reference to such sites as Demand Media's eHow.com, which critics call online "content farms" — that is, sites producing cheap, abundant, mostly useless content that ranks high in search results.
Sites that produce original content or information that Google considers valuable are supposed to rank higher under the new system.
The change announced late Thursday affects about 12 percent, or nearly one in every eight, search requests in the U.S. Google Inc. said the new ranking rules eventually will be introduced in other parts of the world, too. The company tweaks its search algorithms, or formulas, hundreds of times a year, but most of the changes are so subtle that few people notice them. This latest change will be more difficult to miss, according to Google engineers.
"Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem," Google fellow Amit Singhal and principal engineer Matt Cutts wrote in a blog post. "Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that's exactly what this change does."
Google makes significant adjustments to its search formula on the same scale as the latest change four or five times a year, Singhal said in a statement Friday.
What makes the new revisions so notable is that Google spent about a year trying to come up with a way to judge the quality of the content posted on the site.
That focus could hurt Demand Media, which depends on search engines for about 41 percent of the traffic to its websites, with most of those referrals coming from Google, according to documents filed last month after the company completed an initial public offering of stock.
Demand Media, based in Santa Monica, assigns roughly 13,000 freelance writers to produce stories about frequently searched topics and then sells ads alongside the content at its own websites, including eHow.com and Livestrong.com, and about 375 Internet other destinations operated by its partners. Articles range from the likes of "How to Tie Shoelaces" to "How to Bake a Potato" and more.
Many of the ads appearing alongside those articles are sold by Google, which accounts for about one-fourth of Demand Media's revenue of $253 million last year.
Demand Media said it doesn't consider itself a "content farm" or "content mill," but rather as a more responsive approach to addressing topics on people's minds.
"We believe that our platform for satisfying today's consumer demand is the most comprehensive and effective of any online publisher," Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt told analysts earlier this week after the company announced the first quarterly profit in its four-year history. "The standards we put in place, the process that we follow, and most important, the qualified professionals we rely on to create and copy at the solution are unprecedented in traditional and new media.definition."
In a Friday blog post, another Demand Media executive said the company applauds search engine changes that "improve the consumer experience." Google's revisions caused some of Demand Media's articles to rank higher and other to rank lower in search results, wrote Larry Fitzgibbon, Demand Media's executive vice president of media and operations.
"It's impossible to speculate how these or any changes made by Google impact any online business in the long term — but at this point in time, we haven't seen a material net impact," Fitzgibbon wrote.
Investors seemed uncertain how Google's move would affect Demand Media. After falling nearly 5 percent in earlier trading, Demand Media's shares rebounded to close at $22.96, up 36 cents for the session.
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Liedtke reported from San Francisco.
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Online:
Google's blog post: http://bit.ly/i3OOUx
Demand Media's blog post: http://bit.ly/fRqV5Z
original content on yahoo
The Apple Inc. logo is seen through raindrops on a window outside of the New York City flagship Apple store in New York, January 18, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar
By Yinka Adegoke and Foo Yun Chee
NEW YORK/BRUSSELS |
Fri Feb 18, 2011 1:48pm EST
NEW YORK/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. and European regulators are keeping tabs on Apple Inc's plans to take a cut of the revenue generated by the sale of online subscriptions through its App Store following concerns voiced by publishers.
Some app makers are unhappy with Apple's new plan to take a 30 percent cut on all revenue from online subscriptions.
Regulators at the Department of Justice have kicked off an early stage inquiry into Apple's change of policy and are in the process of contacting publishers and also Apple, according to a person familiar with the plans.
In Europe, a European Commission spokeswoman said, "We are monitoring market developments carefully." But an official investigation appears unlikely, however, as commissioners believe rivalry in the field is increasing.
EU Commissioner Andris Piebalgs -- in comments to the European Parliament on the issue -- said it requires, "that Apple holds a dominant position in the relevant market."
"The boundaries of such relevant market(s) are not clear, as the sector is relatively new and evolving."
Apple said on Tuesday that publishers can set the price and duration of a subscription. They can also offer subscriptions through their own existing websites, but would be required to offer the same terms to anyone signing up through Apple.
This would mean customers who want to sign up for a Netflix Inc video account may have just two choices: They could do so through the Netflix website, in which case Netflix would keep the full fee, or they could subscribe through the applications in their iPhone or iPad which would cost Netflix 30 percent of its fees.
Seemingly in response to Apple's plans, Google Inc on Wednesday launched a new subscription service called One Pass for its Android mobile operating system and promised to take just 10 percent of subscription revenue.
U.S. music subscription companies like Rhapsody and Rdio have described the new Apple policy as "economically untenable" for their businesses.
"Digital music is a low margins business. Rights costs typically account for over 70 percent of revenues and payments, technology and marketing taking most of the rest," said Forrester analyst Mark Mulligan. "So Apple's 30 percent levy has the potential to instantly turn premium music subscriptions from low margin to negative margin businesses."
Other media companies likely to be affected include newspaper and magazine publishers who have been looking forward to reinvigorating their flagging print sales by offering their publications through subscriptions on tablets like the iPad.
Apple was not immediately available for comment.
It is not the first time Apple has been investigated by regulators for its role in the music business which it dominates with nearly 70 percent market share of digital music sales. Last May the Justice Department spoke with Internet companies and music labels to determine if Apple was abusing its dominant position.
(Editing by John Wallace, Phil Berlowitz)
original content on reuters
(AFP/File) - News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch, seen here in 2010, is to unveil "The Daily", a digital newspaper for the iPad, the tablet computer the media tycoon has said may be the savior of the struggling news industry.(AFP/File/Jim Watson)
