And I thought newspaper publishers had accepted a life in co-existence with search engines. Not so. The business through The World Newspaper Association is just as obsessed as ever with the idea of somehow reconciling their old business model with the web. The latest result is the “Automated Content Access Protocol”, whereby publishers will “teach” the search engines to index and use their “content” in specific ways:
In one example of how ACAP would work, a newspaper publisher could grant search engines permission to index its site, but specify that only select ones display articles for a limited time after paying a royalty.
To this Undercurrent can only say – good luck! Or maybe look to Norway. Newspaper owners can search too! (via Ben).
