Comments on: Why Murdoch should WIN any lawsuit against Google (stay with me …)

By: Malcolm Coles

Malcolm Coles — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:20:41 +0000

PS I'd like my blog to be in google news, just to be clear!

By: Should Murdoch win any lawsuit against Google? | Online Journalism Blog

Should Murdoch win any lawsuit against Google? | Online Journalism Blog — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:19:51 +0000

[...] Gaither from Google explained how to get removed from Google News while remaining in the main index here and [...]

By: Malcolm Coles

Malcolm Coles — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:16:17 +0000

Chris - thanks a lot. I'll add a link to your comment over at http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2009/08/06/should-murdoch-win-any-lawsuit-against-google/ where I cross-posted this.

By: Chris Gaither

Chris Gaither — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:40:38 +0000

Malcolm, The blog post in July provided a reminder for how publishers can remove themselves from Google search results in general, if they choose to do so. Using robots.txt would apply to both Google News and Google web search.

But if publishers want to be removed from Google News only, there is a simple way: Just tell us, using the link in my comment above. If they're already in web search they will remain there, and our search algorithm won't treat them any differently.

By: Malcolm Coles

Malcolm Coles — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:29:31 +0000

Hi, Chris. Thanks for commenting. Could you clarify something? The original post of google's that I referenced above suggested using robots.txt to stay out of google news. That will also keep you out of the main google index, however, as I pointed out.

Is the link you've just suggested one that lets you manually ask to be taken out of google news but remain in the main web index?

By: Chris Gaither

Chris Gaither — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:31:44 +0000

Malcolm, I work with the Google News team in the U.S. Sorry for adding this comment so late after the initial posting, but I want to make clear that publishers absolutely can be removed from Google News while remaining in web search. The vast majority of publishers choose to make their content discoverable in Google News because they recognize the value that it provides: We send more than 1 billion clicks a month to news publishers worldwide. But publishers are in control over where and whether their content appears. If a news site is included in Google News and no longer wishes to be, all the webmaster needs to do is tell us that. Here's a link from our Google News publisher help center with simple instructions: http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=94003

By: Malcolm Coles

Malcolm Coles — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:15:53 +0000

Peter - there was that Belgian court case, where Google did say: "And if a newspaper does not want to be part of Google News we remove their content from our index –- all they have to do is ask." So maybe you can.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:08:29 +0000

Yes, but I meant something else - if you can't get out of Google News index using some other way, like for example formally asking the Google News team etc.

By: Malcolm Coles

Malcolm Coles — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:06:19 +0000

You can't use robots.txt to stay out of google news without also affecting your position in the main index. Obviously you could take yourself out of both ...

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:03:02 +0000

Malcolm,
Are you implying that it is not possible to unsubscribe from being indexed in Google News?