• AFP, Wednesday, January 20, 2010 11:15 PM

Nearly half of the users of Google News skim the headlines at the news aggregator site without clicking through to newspaper Web sites, according to a survey by Outsell Inc. Google, responding to past criticism from media tycoons like Rupert Murdoch said it drives "about 100,000 clicks every minute" to media sites, generating ad revenue for the news outlets.

"Though Google is driving some traffic to newspapers, it's also taking a significant share away," Outsell analyst Ken Doctor Doctor said. "A full 44% of visitors to Google News scan headlines without accessing newspapers' individual sites." 30% surveyed said they do not use Google to find news stories, preferring to use other search services or to go directly to news publisher sites.

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