Casey Newton

Yeah, so from the start, people were trying to figure out how do we optimize our webpage so that it floats to the top of these Google search rankings? Because as Google becomes... A default place to start your day on the internet, one of the things people are doing is searching for news.

And so publishers, they're changing the HTML, they're talking with people at Google about what exactly are you looking for, and it becomes this dance. And there are some players in the game, like I think probably most of the publishers were, that were pretty good actors.

And so publishers, they're changing the HTML, they're talking with people at Google about what exactly are you looking for, and it becomes this dance. And there are some players in the game, like I think probably most of the publishers were, that were pretty good actors.

And so publishers, they're changing the HTML, they're talking with people at Google about what exactly are you looking for, and it becomes this dance. And there are some players in the game, like I think probably most of the publishers were, that were pretty good actors.

And then there were a bunch of unscrupulous fly-by-night characters that were just trying to sell you a vacuum or whatever and wanted to swarm every keyword you can imagine just on the off chance that maybe their webpage would get to the top of the search results. And so it becomes this very competitive adversarial thing.

And then there were a bunch of unscrupulous fly-by-night characters that were just trying to sell you a vacuum or whatever and wanted to swarm every keyword you can imagine just on the off chance that maybe their webpage would get to the top of the search results. And so it becomes this very competitive adversarial thing.

And then there were a bunch of unscrupulous fly-by-night characters that were just trying to sell you a vacuum or whatever and wanted to swarm every keyword you can imagine just on the off chance that maybe their webpage would get to the top of the search results. And so it becomes this very competitive adversarial thing.

And an effect of that was Google just became increasingly powerful because basically it's not just the publishing industry. It's like every industry is beating down a path to Google's front door saying, hey, how do I get to be the top link on the thing? And that becomes like one of the sort of main drivers of Google eventually taking over the web.

And an effect of that was Google just became increasingly powerful because basically it's not just the publishing industry. It's like every industry is beating down a path to Google's front door saying, hey, how do I get to be the top link on the thing? And that becomes like one of the sort of main drivers of Google eventually taking over the web.

And an effect of that was Google just became increasingly powerful because basically it's not just the publishing industry. It's like every industry is beating down a path to Google's front door saying, hey, how do I get to be the top link on the thing? And that becomes like one of the sort of main drivers of Google eventually taking over the web.

Yeah, I mean, Google did do things to put itself at the center of the news conversation. The first thing it did was it had a product called Google News, where it just started to aggregate headlines. And you can visit Google News and get a rundown of what was happening around the world.

Yeah, I mean, Google did do things to put itself at the center of the news conversation. The first thing it did was it had a product called Google News, where it just started to aggregate headlines. And you can visit Google News and get a rundown of what was happening around the world.

Yeah, I mean, Google did do things to put itself at the center of the news conversation. The first thing it did was it had a product called Google News, where it just started to aggregate headlines. And you can visit Google News and get a rundown of what was happening around the world.

Another thing that it started to do, and this happened much later in the mobile era, but eventually by the time you Google something on your phone, even before you search for anything, Google would know your previous searches and they would show you news stories that you might be interested in. And all of a sudden, that was starting to send a flood of traffic people's way.

Another thing that it started to do, and this happened much later in the mobile era, but eventually by the time you Google something on your phone, even before you search for anything, Google would know your previous searches and they would show you news stories that you might be interested in. And all of a sudden, that was starting to send a flood of traffic people's way.

Another thing that it started to do, and this happened much later in the mobile era, but eventually by the time you Google something on your phone, even before you search for anything, Google would know your previous searches and they would show you news stories that you might be interested in. And all of a sudden, that was starting to send a flood of traffic people's way.

A third thing that happened was that publishers just started to pay attention to what people were searching for. There are various tools that let people understand, oh, wow, a lot of people are searching for the Game of Thrones trailer. It's going to take us four seconds to embed the Game of Thrones trailer in our website.

A third thing that happened was that publishers just started to pay attention to what people were searching for. There are various tools that let people understand, oh, wow, a lot of people are searching for the Game of Thrones trailer. It's going to take us four seconds to embed the Game of Thrones trailer in our website.

A third thing that happened was that publishers just started to pay attention to what people were searching for. There are various tools that let people understand, oh, wow, a lot of people are searching for the Game of Thrones trailer. It's going to take us four seconds to embed the Game of Thrones trailer in our website.

Let's just go ahead and do that so that when anybody searches Game of Thrones trailer, maybe we'll rise to the top and we'll be able to gain that ad revenue. And here's where I do think the publishers just made a mistake because there was a lot of easy traffic that was available. The...