Google addresses world of print

The chief executive officer of Google has addressed leaders in the print industry in an attempt to ease tensions between the sector and the world of online search.

Eric Schmidt spoke at the Newspaper Association of America conference in San Diego yesterday (April 7th), amid tension from press officials seeing their revenues fall.

He offered advice to attendees on how they can use technology to their advantage, which could lead to an interactive future for their readers.

Speaking about online media, Mr Schmidt said that the future of it was likely to be free, with audiences for paid content getting smaller.

One attendee asked the Google official if there was any way to tweak the search algorithms to allow news organisations with credible brands to come out on top.

In response, Mr Schmidt said: "In Google search we're careful not to bias it using our own judgment of trust; we're never sure if we get it right. We use complicated ranking signals ... and we change them periodically," a fact which he admitted drove users "crazy".

Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling noted that Mr Schmidt's speech came amid accusations that Google was devaluing newspaper content.

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