Publishers want control over content indexed in search engine
Due Credit:
TechRepublic, Google
The Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP) has been confirmed and the major backers of it, i.e. major publishing agencies want most search engines to acknowledge the new rules they want in the indexing game. But search engines are hardly willing to go along. Firstly, the de-facto rules of indexing itself are only an unofficial standard at best (robot.txt)
Robot.txt is a file that web administrators maintain on their website to convey the message to web crawlers or indexers as to what pages are available to be indexed. The ACAP adds more commands to the existing Robot.txt as in defining the time period for which the content must be valid on the index of a search engine.
As of this article, no major search engine has backed the ACAP proposal, with Google only playing it diplomatically with a wait-n-watch answer.
How does this affect you? Well, for one, the total issue of content getting indexed and owned is a gray area. From the search engine side it is justified to get all content on the web accessible. From the content owner side it seems justified that you get to decide the distribution of the content. From the consumer side, all you can hope is that the indexers and the owners can come to a amicable solution and no blacklisting of quality content takes place.
Robot.txt is a file that web administrators maintain on their website to convey the message to web crawlers or indexers as to what pages are available to be indexed. The ACAP adds more commands to the existing Robot.txt as in defining the time period for which the content must be valid on the index of a search engine.
As of this article, no major search engine has backed the ACAP proposal, with Google only playing it diplomatically with a wait-n-watch answer.
How does this affect you? Well, for one, the total issue of content getting indexed and owned is a gray area. From the search engine side it is justified to get all content on the web accessible. From the content owner side it seems justified that you get to decide the distribution of the content. From the consumer side, all you can hope is that the indexers and the owners can come to a amicable solution and no blacklisting of quality content takes place.
Search Engines
Infognito
Soon, you will have to pay to access information lists, then pay again to access the individual pieces of information!
I expect the open nature of the web has always rankled the extreme right wing, (both in government and big corporations) who can only gain and retain strength by restricting protest, investigation and flow of information.
We live in dangerous times!
cheers
fog
The contentious issue here is that publishers may make use of the new guidelines to initiate endless litigations. That is where consumers stand to lose as it would usher in more control.
Infognito
yes I can understand that, but, it is also obvious that the net is slowly being controlled by the dollar, and so it will affect access and free content. It has survived well so far, but, like banks, people always want more do they not?
Interesting post, and please keep us informed of what happens with this. I expect eventually, that it will mean we cannot use any information without paying for it?
cheers
fog
Technology View
A Geek
Remember the early days of the net when briefly for a period of time there was a dearth of free e-mail accounts. It was one big mistake that the industry made and that was to charge users for a service they thought was a value addition. Today, free storage and more such services are on the net are free and ubiquitous.
I believe that the tech industry would have learnt its lesson well from those days. What ever gets put on the net has no value unless there are people to read it. As far as i know, Wall Street Journal is one of the very few magazines that gets subscribed for a fee online. Search engines are indeed doing a great favor to content providers by making the whole sea of information manageable.
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