• by Ray Schultz , November 18, 2024

In an improvement requested by European regulators and publishers, Google is providing additional data about the effect of news content in search when its products are being used.

Google is running a small test in which it will not show results from EU-based news publishers in Google News, Search and Discover. 

This limited-time test will affect 1% of users in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. However, the test will be paused in France. 

Google will continue showing results from other websites, including news sites based outside the EU. “We intend to use this test to assess how results from EU news publishers impact the search experience for our users and traffic to publishers,” it says. 

Google continues: “Once the test ends, news results will show up again as before,” Google says. “While the test is taking place, it won’t impact the payments we make to news publishers under the EUCD (European Copyright Directive).”  (EUCD).

Google, which now has licensing agreements with more than 4,000 publications in 20 EU countries, claims that these deals help news publishers comply with Article 15 of the EUCD. 

“These agreements are based on consistent criteria which respect the law and existing copyright guidance, including how often a news website is displayed and how much ad revenue is generated on pages that also display previews of news content,” Google says in a post.