DISQUS

Mathew's comments: Google wants newsmakers to write the news

  • Tony Hung · 2 years ago
    Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who can see beyond all of the details for what this might represent about the future. ;)
  • Tish Grier · 2 years ago
    Matt...I'm not so sure this is "crowdsourcing" of any kind, but more of a ploy on the part of Google to get some free content for a news product that nobody can seem to find (Gabe Rivera noted that Google News does some original content--but who can find it?)

    Crowdsourcing,though, assumes that people are going to work on stories because they want to, not because they're compelled to correct something they believe is wrong with a story. And, if you think about it, are people going to have all the time necessary to write in to Google News...

    There are also some ethical questions here...along with many, many other questions...
  • Ed Kohler · 2 years ago
    It would be nice for people being written about to have something similar to a single location where they could respond if they felt misquoted or wanted to add additional insight beyond what made the story. It becomes impossible for people to do this if the same story appears in hundreds of news sites.
  • Mathew · 2 years ago
    Tish, I'm not sure it's a ploy -- I think Google might actually believe it's a valuable thing to do (although it's impossible to know for sure, of course).

    I recognize that there are lots of problems with the idea, which I think you and others have laid out. But I still think it has value -- if it is done properly.

    But then I guess you could say that about a lot of things :-)
  • Tish Grier · 2 years ago
    Very true, Mat, very true :-)