First look at Google’s hosted AP content
Cory Bergman September 7th, 2007
Earlier this week, Google News announced it would begin hosting AP stories instead of linking off to other news sites. LR reader Eric has discovered one of the first hosted stories right here and here. Thanks, Eric!


3 Comments Add your own
1. Eric | September 7th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
It looks like all the AP stories are there. If you search google news for a string (using quotes to eliminate other similar items) from any current AP article you’ll see the google hosted version — AND they’re already filtering out the AP member sites.
Google’s hosted version is clean, easy to read, and not covered with anchor heads and ads. How can anyone compete?
2. Eric | September 7th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Bah. I hit “submit” too soon.
Here’s how you compete for AP reader eyeballs:
Most people (so far) do not troll Google news for wire stories. There’s just too much stuff for the average user to read.
If you can own your market with original local content people will still come to your site, and they WILL read interesting AP content presented to them if they’re already there.
We’re no longer going to get traffic from Google News for AP stories, but we can take that view away from Google if we get viewers to come to our sites first. And the way to do that is with original local content.
It’s not a novel concept, but it’s one way to continue to capitalize on the large AP investment most of us already make.
3. Mitch | September 7th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
AP content has been on the site for a week now. I tried to post a link that lists it all in the original post, but the comments don’t allow query strings in the URL field (?q=query&p=page). I sent you an email to your KING5 address about it, Corey, but I guess you didn’t get that.
Anyway, if you want to see all the hosted content, search for this in Google News:
{source:the_associated_press|source:afp|source:the_press_association|source:the_canadian_press}
Yes, it’s not just the AP. British, Canadian and French wires are included as well. If you just want AP content, search for:
source:the_associated_press
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