There are a number of publishers, including Anna Dubenko, the Deputy Audience Director at The New York Times, who are not happy how Google shows that "Quotes In The News Box." The issue is, she said, the quotes can be taken out of context because Google is not showing enough context.
This is a screen shot of this box and Anna Dubenko said on Twitter "Google’s choice to pull out prominent quotes from news articles without the story’s context is... not great."
Danny Sullivan from Google, who has a ton of experience in the publishing world, said:
Also just to clarify, we don't just show quotes in response to a query and that's it. There will be other stories in the results that provide context here. For example, I get quotes shown for [trump] but after and part of an overall set that begins like this. pic.twitter.com/qZW0UGEDFp
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 23, 2020
Here is the dialog back and forth:
What further context would you like provided for quotes beyond the headlines? Serious question, so I can pass on. A snippet description also? Or something that frames any quote in context?
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 23, 2020
To be clear, we are showing quotes with context—headline of the story the quote came from. I get in this case, you don’t feel some or all of those headlines give enough context. That why I wondered if more context like a snippet might help. Sounds like not for you, will pass on.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 23, 2020
Thanks — and yes, I think those headlines don’t give enough context. Possibly because they weren’t written in a way that anticipated that a false claim in the body of the story would be pulled out (or they’re just bad headlines). Either way, thanks for listening.
— Anna Dubenko (@AnnaDubenko) November 23, 2020
These quotes were selected by human editors as inspirational or notable, and again, surrounded by reporting. We would not present a quote in need of a fact-check or context on its own (and as you can see here, they do not live on their own in the headline).
— Hannah Poferl (@HannahPoferl) November 23, 2020
I wonder if Google will adapt these or not?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
