Google has been testing blocking news in Google Search on about 4% of Canadian users. Google said, “We’re briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users.”
I reported on this on Search Engine Land last week after Google sent me this statement:
We’re briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users. We run thousands of tests each year to assess any potential changes to Search. We’ve been fully transparent about our concern that C-18 is overly broad and, if unchanged, could impact products Canadians use and rely on every day. We remain committed to supporting a sustainable future for news in Canada and offering solutions that fix Bill C-18.
This is similar to what Google did in Australia in 2021, here is what that looked like:
It is hard to know what this test looks like, I did ask Google for examples, but they did not provide them.
I did find these on Twitter, but I was not able to verify if this is the test or not:
I’m not sure if Google has officially started blocking news in Canada yet, but I haven’t been able to search news websites for over a week — both mobile and PC pic.twitter.com/SGEOdMEZ38
— 𝘽𝙧𝙮𝙖𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙪𝙢𝙚 (@BryanPassifiume) February 23, 2023
It seems to be specifically impacting Canadian news sites — here’s an account/incognito search for ‘Joe Biden’ (Incognito mode denoted with an ‘I’ and my missing Google account profile photo) pic.twitter.com/ZqV3iet7UG
— 𝘽𝙧𝙮𝙖𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙪𝙢𝙚 (@BryanPassifiume) February 23, 2023
This reminds me of this old tweet from Matt Cutts:
O, Canada. https://t.co/kRbfH54ljH
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 28, 2017
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
We all want to be satisfied, even though we know some people who will never be that way, and others who see satisfaction as a foreign emotion that they can’t hope to ever feel.
