Internet search engine leader Google Inc began hosting material produced by four news services on its own Web site instead of sending readers to other destinations.
The change that started on Friday affects hundreds of stories and photographs distributed each day by the Associated Press (AP), Agence France-Presse (AFP), The Press Association in the United Kingdom and The Canadian Press. It could diminish Internet traffic to other media sites where those stories and photos are also found -- a development that could reduce the online advertising revenue of newspapers and broadcasters.
Google negotiated licensing deals with AP and AFP during the past two years after the services raised concerns about whether the search engine had been infringing on their copyrights.
The company also reached licensing agreements with the UK and Canadian services during the same period.
Financial terms of those deals have not been disclosed.
The new approach does not change the look of Google News or affect the way the section treats material produced by other media.
Google had already bought the right to display content produced by all four news services, but the search engine's news section had continued to link to other Web sites to read the stories and look at the photographs.
That helped drive more online traffic to newspapers and broadcasters who pay annual fees to help finance AP, a 161-year-old cooperative owned by news organizations.
Now, Google visitors interested in reading an AP story will remain on Google's Web site unless they click on a link that enables them to read the same story elsewhere. Google does not have any immediate plans to run ads alongside the news hosted on its site.
Although the change might not even be noticed by many Google users, the decision to corral the content from AP and other news services may irritate US publishers and broadcasters if the move results in less traffic for them and more for Internet's most powerful company.
A diminished audience would likely translate into lower online revenues, thereby compounding the financial headaches of long-established media already scrambling to make up for the money that has been lost as more advertisers shift their spending to the Internet.
Google has been the trend's biggest beneficiary because it runs the Internet's largest advertising network. In the first half of this year, the nine-year-old company earned US$1.9 billion on revenue of US$7.5 billion.
Despite Google's dominance in search, its news section lags behind several other rivals. In July, Google News attracted 9.6 million visitors compared with Yahoo News' industry-leading audience of 33.8 million, according to comScore Media Metrix.
Yahoo Inc, MSN and AOL, have been featuring AP material for years.
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