Laut einem «Wall Street Journal»-Bericht (via «paidcontent.org») bemühen sich derzeit insbesondere britische Zeitungen darum, ihre Präsenz auf Google durch den Kauf von Suchbegriffen zu verstärken, wie die «Sponsored Links» in diesem Screenshot zeigen:
- Newspapers are buying search words on Google Inc. so that links to their Web sites pop up first when people type in a search. The Daily Telegraph, for example, bought the phrase “North Korea Nuclear Test” after the country detonated a nuclear device last October. People in the United Kingdom and the U.S. using English-language Google who typed the phrase into the search engine saw an ad for the Telegraph Web site on the top right of their screen.
Kein Wunder, wenn man die folgende Aussage von Edward Roussel, Online-Verantwortlicher des «Telegraph», bedenkt:
- «The most important driver of all readers [to our site] is Google, except for people who know us and come directly. It plays a critical part of exporting our brand, particularly to the U.S.»
Die Londoner «Times» hält ihre Journalisten laut «Wall Street Journal» gar dazu an «to write in a way that makes their articles more likely to appear among Google’s unpaid search results.».