Google has announced that it will be changing its new algorithm to promote “original reporting” of the news and other social media platforms. It sounds obvious and like something Google should have always done. But it’s actually a much bigger deal than that. Though, Not everyone is sure if it’s a good idea or not.
Previously Google’s algorithm favoured serving its users with fresher news articles. The thinking behind this was logical – as news stories develop, Google News would promote newer article, because they were more likely to contain the most up-to-date version of events.
Google therefore often ranked newer articles above original reporting because its algorithm was designed to reward “freshness”. Makes sense, right? A user gets little value from using Google if the results its being served are out of date.
The problem with the old model was that news outlets weren’t being fairly rewarded by the world’s biggest search engine for producing unique content. Big news websites could report on a smaller website’s “original reporting” and literally wipe the article that actually broke a story off of Google’s listing. That clearly isn’t fair.
We all need to wait and see what happens and see what kind of a response and how good it does over the coming months.
