Google unveils its $300M News Initiative - thoughts?

[OneGrassRoot]

Google unveils its $300M News Initiative, with tools for subscriptions, security and fighting fake news


Google today announced a multi-pronged News Initiative, which Chief Business Officer Phillipp Schindler described as a way to tie together all the company’s efforts to work with the journalism industry.

Google says the News Initiative is focused on three broad goals — strengthening quality journalism, supporting sustainable business models and empowering newsrooms through technological innovation. It’s also committing to spend $300 million over the next three years on its various journalism-related projects.

At a New York City press event, Schindler told journalists and other industry attendees, “Our mission is inherently tied to your business.” He acknowledged that this might sound like “big company rhetoric.” To put it less diplomatically, news organizations might not view Google or the other big Internet platforms as allies given their dominance of the online ad business and the role they play in spreading sensationalistic or questionable stories, not to mention misinformation and hoaxes.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/google-news-initiative/

(There are several aspects that look interesting. I know Google is one of the Evil 5 but maybe they're all going to start doing better now that regulation is on the horizon.)

[Blue_Tires]

1. My thoughts? Shoot it in the cradle...

There is a very real reason why all these Silicon Valley Bros (Bezos, Omidyar, Thiel, etc.) are scratching out blank checks to get into the "reform the media" racket, and I don't like it one bit.

[Egnever]

2. I guess I am a fan boy

I don't buy the google is evil mantra yet.

Since they went to a public company I have certainly worried more about it but so far the corporate influence has been somewhat minimal.

They may turn evil at some point for me but Google has provided me years of service now all for free and I have never had a single issue with their service. Never hacked never discovered anything shared without my consent and always improving services to make my life easier. They have also dumped millions into projects that provide them no income or very little in an effort to improve both the competative climate in the case of google fiber and the planet in things like their solar initiatives and even their health initiatives.

They don't always hit on all cylinders but they are constantly striving to improve and I like that they are willing to take chances with no profit in sight short term and maybe even never.

I already use google news as my homepage currently so any improvements on that would be welcome and even better if they find a way to monetize it for the publishers and also have reasonable filters for fake news.

They are the masters of indexing if anyone can do it they can.