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Google appears to prioritise ads for legit sources in searches for pirated content

By | Published on Wednesday 23 July 2014

Google

Google is possibly experimenting with a new system that would see ads for legit content platforms positioned at the top of searches for unlicensed movies or music.

As previously reported, Google has been much criticised by the music and movie industries for not doing enough to steer web-users to legitimate rather than illegal sources of content. In the ideal world the movie studios and record companies would prefer Google to completely remove piracy sources from their search results, and not just link by link, but anything originating from such a site, and especially if said site is the subject of a web-blocking injunction.

But Google has resisted such calls, instead telling content owners to sort out their SEO so that legit content performs better than illegal content in search, and then by promising to change their search algorithm to prioritise approved sites. The labels and studios didn’t think much of the initial proposal, though welcomed the latter, until they concluded that the algorithm tweak had achieved little.

But Torrentfreak has spotted that some key searches on Google for popular TV shows followed by piracy-related terms like ‘torrent’, ‘BitTorrent’, ‘DVDrip’ and ‘Putlocker’ recently resulted in ads for legit video-on-demand services like Netflix, Hulu and Google’s own Play platform appearing at the top of the screen. And while clearly marked as ‘ad’ results, they seem more obvious than the commercially-driven search listings that usually appear on the Google site.

Of course, Netflix et al could bid for Google advertising spots that put them at the top of searches for “Breaking Bad torrent” anyway, though Torrentfreak suggests that these ad spots are different, and are possibly part of a new pilot initiative by the web giant that aims to placate its critics in the entertainment industry.

Though whether the studios and labels would actually be placated by such a move remains to be seen. Some might argue that Google commercialising the diverting of users to legit services is not appropriate, or that ad links will never have the same impact as non-commercial search results. But if Torrentfreak is right about the web firm’s intent, this could please some in the rights sector.



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