Google claims news has no ad revenue value

Shocking absolutely no one, Google, a company that doesn’t want to be forced to pay its fair share for using news coverage it didn’t create throughout its many services like Search, Discover, YouTube, and Gemini, has performed an in-house test that claims news has no discernable value when it comes to the company’s Adsense earnings.

Google withheld news from 1% of users in select European countries

And claims there was no revenue difference

Google performed this test over a 2.5-month period in eight European markets by withholding news from Search for 1% of the users in those regions (not the first time Google has trotted out this dog and pony show), claiming its test results show that news is valueless when it comes to how Google earns through Adsense (via Techcrunch). Basically, Google claims that showing news doesn’t earn it anything extra over not showing news, so it shouldn’t have to pay publishers to distribute their information, which is what this test is all about: seeking leverage in its payment negotiations with European publishers.

Google is full of beans

Of course, Google’s argument falls flat on its face the second you wonder why Google still scrapes and serves news around the world through a multitude of apps and services if it’s so worthless. From Google News to Search to Gemini to YouTube, every single one of these services would suffer greatly if they didn’t have fresh news to distribute each and every day; news Google argues has no value and yet is very much profiting from it at this very moment.

Heck, it’s incredibly likely you found this very article through a Google service. While ad rates have been driven down to a pittance over the years, forcing many once-profitable sites into clickbait and fake news just to get by (which tends to lead to bankruptcy or irrelevancy), if Android Police is still managing to make money on our news content (you can thank Google for all of the ads necessary to keep the place afloat), that absolutely means Google is earning, too. Heck, Google is currently at war with adblockers across YouTube, and there is no doubt that YouTube serves up a ton of news. Are we to believe, as Google fights tooth and nail with its own users to discourage adblock use, that the numerous ads appearing across news channels on YouTube are somehow not making Google any money?

Google’s partnership with the Associated Press doesn’t line up with its study

If news has no value, why partner to scrape that content?

It would appear that Google is trying to make the case that it’s doing the world a favor by continuing to serve news it didn’t create across its services without paying for it, news that has primarily warped into fake or rage-inducing, as many outlets abuse SEO practices as their last avenue to stay afloat. Discover is a perfect example; it’s a wall of clickbait, and you can see even more examples of this everywhere: once highly-regarded sites are now slumming it up, pushing out SEO bait that clearly isn’t designed to please users, but Google’s bots.

Ultimately, Google has played a big part in killing journalism and now wants to turn around to claim news has no value now that the remaining outlets have correctly fingered the culprit. Seeing that Google recently partnered with the Associated Press to scrape its news content to serve in Gemini, it sure sounds like Google thinks news has value after all, which instantly debunks Google’s ridiculous study.