The company wants to support news publications

Apr 28, 2015 09:50 GMT  ·  By

It seems that Google is looking back at its past mistakes as the company has announced that it will be working with some of the most important European news organization.

The Guardian reports that Google plans also to throw in some money, $163m (€150m) to be more precise. It seems that eight media agencies will be involved in the project, namely The Guardian, the Financial Times, Die Zeit, FAZ, El Pais, Les Echos, La Stampa, and NRC Media.

The program, known as the Digital News Initiative, follows a long dispute between the search giant and the European Commission regarding its abuse of its dominant position to promote its own services to the disadvantages of European companies.

People saw some ulterior motive behind the project

Although vehemently denied by representatives of the company, people could not help to see this move and this sudden generosity as a way for Google to clean its name and gather some friends in Europe in light of the recent lawsuit.

On the contrary, Google claims that the decision was solely based on the fact that the company is worried about the future of news outlet in an era where you can find out just about anything on the web with one click.

This is why Google made the decision to show its support towards news agencies’ development so that they can provide high-quality material to their readers.

The company revealed that they would be working on ways to "increase revenue, traffic and audience engagement" for the agencies taking part in this new initiative. However, given that only major news outlets have become involved in the program, people are a bit skeptical about Google’s intentions, wondering why no startup agencies are included on the list.

Also, people do not understand why this initiative is strictly directed at Europe. What about news outlets around the world? This program looks more like a scheme from Google to control what news agencies will publish about the upcoming results of the lawsuit in months or years to come.