Who Gets Indexed in Google News?

March 24, 2005 · by · in Derivative Liability, Search Engines

I still have no idea how Google decides which news sources are among the 4,500 indexed in Google News. Google News’ FAQ has the following:

“What if I don’t see my favorite news source in Google News?

We’re as shocked as you are! If we’re missing a publisher that we should be covering, please send us your ideas. While we can’t guarantee that we’ll heed your recommendation, but we do promise to review all the suggestions we receive without regard to political viewpoint or ideology.” [emphasis added]

Interesting—and a little ironic, given that Google is removing the National Vanguard from Google News because, according to spokesperson Steve Landgon, “Google News does not allow hate content…If we are made aware of articles that contain hate content, we will remove them.” Exactly what are the standards for Google News’ content? And how does Google’s decisions to exercise editorial control over what content stays in or gets kicked out of Google News affect its potential liability in the AFP case?

At minimum, I think it’s time for Google to come clean about how it selects sources for Google News. A little transparency, please. And I continue to think that Google should open up Google News for bloggers to submit feeds, or Technorati may zip right by it.