After three days of trying out Google's new Fast Flip reader, there are still some unanswered questions. Krishna Bharat, who developed Google News in 2002, told the New York Times on Monday that the idea was that more people would read news online if it were faster: “When it is fast, people will look at more news and more ads, and that’s something that publishers want to see.”
First, it's not clear how flipping through a set of articles is faster than quickly skimming a list of headlines. Second, the number of people who don't read newspapers online because they prefer print is dwindling. People are reading news online, they just aren't paying for it. Google says that they'll share ad revenue from this new venture with participating newspapers, but why not share revenue from Google News? Isn't that kind of like saying "I'm going to steal your stuff and then make it up to you by experimenting with it and sharing the revenue in the unlikely event there is any?"
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I completely agree. They may take advantage of their power position to increase their profit with others' effort. However, some may aruge media industry is so desperate they may end up accepting??? SOme money is better than nothing??
ReplyDeleteOnly time will tell...