Publishers have begun to work on a project that just might solve their recent search engine-related problems. Designated ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol), it would allow “online content providers to systematically provide information about access and use of their content to news aggregators and others on the web.”
Gavin O’Reilly, President of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), was quoted speaking about the project. “This system is intended to remove completely any rights conflicts between publishers and search engines,” he said. “Via ACAP, we look forward to fostering mutually beneficial relationships between publishers of original content and the search engine operators, in which the interests of both parties can be properly balanced.”
It’s fair to say that O’Reilly is knowledgeable on the subject. WAN is a partner in the project, and also published an article announcing the existence of ACAP. The European Publishers Council, the International Publishers Association, and the European Newspapers Association are in on the effort, as well, according to that article. ACAP is truly a “global pilot project.”
It will work by providing information “in a form that can be recognised and interpreted by search engine ‘crawlers,’” and “will tell search engine operators and other users under what terms they can use the content.” Phrased another way, it “will be a technical solutions framework that will allow publishers worldwide to express use policies in a language that the search engine’s robot ’spiders’ can be taught to understand.”
That all sounds pretty reasonable - pretty smart, actually. More details about ACAP will be released on October 6 at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and, according to WAN, it “will be launched officially by the end of the year.”
Tag: ACAP
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