We are testing different ways to display filters [notre moteur de recherche] As a result, a small group of users were temporarily unable to access some of them, a Google spokesperson confirmed to Nieman Lab via email.
“I can confirm that users in Canada are not affected,” said Shay Purdy of Google Canada.
The News tab, which has been available on the search engine for over 20 years, is useful for quickly filtering search results to show only journalistic sources on a specific topic.
Internet users noticed the absence on Wednesday and only saw the usual tabs for images, videos, maps, flights, purchases, etc.
A test that raises concerns
This news worries the news media, which particularly relies on this tool to generate traffic to their websites, essential to their funding.
There have been layoffs in this sector for months.
On Friday, the Vice group announced that it would lay off several hundred employees. CBC/Radio-Canada, in turn, announced in December that it would cut 600 jobs and 200 open positions (new window). The conglomerate Bell Canada Enterprises, for its part, cut 4,800 jobs in January (new window), or almost 10% of its workforce. TVA Group announced its intention to cut 547 jobs in November (new window), and Métro Média officially filed for bankruptcy in 2023.
Google had also threatened to block Canadian media content in its search engine for months (new window), in the background of the passage of Bill C-18. The giant eventually agreed with Ottawa to negotiate financial compensation (new window) with Canadian media outlets – $100 million a year – for broadcasting their news online.
The spread of disinformation also poses a risk, as content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly finds its way into search results. of the IT giant.
At the beginning of February, Google launched its generative AI tool Gemini (new window) in Canada with a connection to its search engine.
The company announced this week that it would be discontinuing its image generation feature after it was attacked on X (formerly Twitter) for inaccuracies in certain images it created, particularly regarding gender and diversity in historical topics. The new tool portrayed Vikings and soldiers from Nazi Germany as black or Asian people.