[IMC-US] indymedia.us and google news

[Ryan Kaldari]

Hey everybody,

I'm still working on the Indymedia vs. Google News issue and I was 
wondering if we could do a little experiment with indymedia.us. First a 
little history for those who need it...

Shortly after Google News was launched, several Indymedia sites were 
picked up by Google News for syndication. Right-wing bloggers like 
Charles Johnson and his cronies launched a huge email campaign to 
convince Google News to drop all the Indymedia sites by claiming that 
Indymedia was "antisemitic". The campaign was successful and Google 
News no longer syndicates any Indymedia sites in the US. After trying 
out half a dozen different excuses, Google News finally came up with a 
policy to exclude any sites that allow "open publishing".

Since indymedia.us doesn't actually support open publishing yet, why 
don't we temporarily remove the link to the open publishing newswire 
from the front page and submit the site to Google News? Since I assume 
the site has never been submitted to Google News before, they'll 
actually have to take a look at it (instead of just automatically 
firing off a form email). Since they won't be able to fall back on the 
open publishing policy (at least not without a stretch), it'll be 
interesting to see what their response is.

If they come up with some ridiculous new excuse, it will add to our 
evidence of their stonewalling tactics. If they can't come up with an 
excuse, who knows, maybe they'll actually syndicate the site, which 
would instantly propel it from total obscurity to international 
prominence. Either way, we win.

What say ye?

-ryan