Google’s threatening to “go on strike” to ratchet up the pressure.
And it will work. It doesn’t hurt them much, but it’s devastating to the media companies because most of their traffic comes from Meta and Google.
If Jane Doe searches for “wildfires” and would have seen a story by the Toronto Star in her search results, she might have clicked it. If Google stops linking to the Star and instead now just links to a YouTube video of the wildfires, or a blog from someone nearby, Jane might click there instead. Since Google gets ad money from those sources too, it has zero effect on their bottom line, but destroys the traffic to the Star.
It’s why this “link tax” scheme failed in Germany, it failed in Australia, it’s failed everywhere that it’s been tried, since it’s a stupid idea.
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And it will work. It doesn’t hurt them much, but it’s devastating to the media companies because most of their traffic comes from Meta and Google.
If Jane Doe searches for “wildfires” and would have seen a story by the Toronto Star in her search results, she might have clicked it. If Google stops linking to the Star and instead now just links to a YouTube video of the wildfires, or a blog from someone nearby, Jane might click there instead. Since Google gets ad money from those sources too, it has zero effect on their bottom line, but destroys the traffic to the Star.
It’s why this “link tax” scheme failed in Germany, it failed in Australia, it’s failed everywhere that it’s been tried, since it’s a stupid idea.