Google has reported the results of an experiment it ran which removed news from search results for 1% of users for 2.5 months in eight* markets in Europe

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Google claims that news content is worthless to its ad business following an experiment with 1% of search results in eight EU markets over 2.5 months. The test aimed to evaluate the real value of displaying news snippets, suggesting that the impact is negligible. Google hopes to use these findings in payment negotiations with European publishers. However, the company has faced significant antitrust fines in France and increased scrutiny in Germany, complicating its efforts to contest the EU copyright law requirements.

Google claims news is worthless to its ad business after test involving 1% of search results in eight EU markets

Anyway. Google uses content created by human beings to thrive. No real content = only AI generated slop = no users, because slop is unusable. So google relies on real minds. Without real minds, this company would be worthless. So google has to pay for it. Its just difficult to find a proof… But I will think of it and come back later… maybe…

This strategy of downplaying the value of news can easily backfire. The regulator can easily play the “then don’t use the news in EU but abide by the regulations” card, which I hope they will. 😁
I’m all in on EU regulations at this point. They might slow us down at the beginning but they’ll help (with the help of proper financing) develop a sane and a consumer-wise safe market - something US big techs generally don’t understand (it’s hard to understand anything when your only focus is “the line must go up” and everything else is a potential product - I know, it sounds dystopian but at the end of the day, it’s how it currently is). 😉
That’s my take on the topic.

If showing news snippets in their search results is not beneficial to Google then they shouldn’t be fighting do hard to offer a worthless (to them) service.
The content is beneficial to the consumer and the consumer is beneficial to the news organisations they are undermining.
This is not an argument against paying news outlets, it’s an argument against Google trying to be the centre of attention, which is the original argument.

something interesting but i feel google is down playing news content

Remember the days their motto was Dont be evil? How bad they are nowadays … bigtech doesnt look left or right, steal everything they can monetize, who cares about law or others … sad state of the internet. If you dont sell stuff, you shouldnt be there, because you are weird … thats the message.