Google isn’t universally loved by newspaper execs and other content creators, who notice Google’s making boatloads of money from content created by others – much of which is originally found in newspapers.

Now – with newspapers struggling – Google’s noticing that the source of much of their salable content may disappear. And even Google knows that’s bad.

That’s why Google’s offering up a paid-content vision for newspapers – one that sounds eerily like… the current business model for the online porn industry (via the SiliconValley.com site, bulleted for simpler reading:)

“Our vision of a premium content ecosystem,” the company [ed: Google] said, “includes the following features:

  • Single sign-on capability for users to access content and manage subscriptions;
  • Ability for publishers to combine subscriptions from different titles together for one price
  • Ability for publishers to create multiple payment options and easily include/exclude content behind a paywall
  • Multiple tiers of access to search including 1) snippets only with ’subscription’ label, 2) access to preview pages and 3) ‘first click free’ access
  • Advertising systems that offer highly relevant ads for users, such as interest-based advertising.

Is this the porn industry model? Tell you what – you visit a few of those sites, and let me know.

For now – and from this safe, virus-free distance – I’m suggesting Google’s suggestions align very closely to the online porn biz model.

In the past, I’ve joked that those interested in seeing the future of “legitimate” ecommerce on the Internet need look no farther then the porn industry.

(I’ve also said you’re “never more than one mistaken click away from porn on the Internet,” and it turns out both are true.)

That Google’s vision so completely aligns with what I’m going to call The Online Porn Model For Fun & Profit (Porn 3.0?) should raise a few eyebrows.

Are porn purveyors truly the visionaries the newspaper industry needs to embrace, or is somebody at Google simply spending too much time surfing where they shouldn’t?

As always, the Underground disavows all knowledge of online pornography except those parts which could prove useful to his customers.

Just saying is all.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

You can read the whole article via Google to newspapers: Let us be your broker before you go broke | Good Morning Silicon Valley.

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