Google’s Cohen: Make Sure User Experience Comes First, Not Search Engine Visibility – Poynter Online

Charles Yoo writing at Poynter Online:

"Google News chief Josh Cohen says a key to success in online publishing is this: Focus on "creating a more engaging experience for the users so that they spend a longer period of time per visit."

But, if Google cares so much about journalism, why not tweak PageRank and give more weight to news sites? (AP, which has been negotiating its contract with Google, reportedly wants its content ranked higher.)

"One person's branded or 'high quality' information isn't necessarily going to align with another's. So having some human come in and say, 'Well, this is good journalism and that is bad journalism' isn't consistent with our approach of trying to show unbiased results," said Cohen, product manager for Google News, in a phone interview."

Del.ici.us tags: googlenews google journalism pagerank usability poynter joshcohen charlesyoo