Thursday, February 15, 2007

news.google.be Google News Belgium: In an odd twist, most coverage here about Google's recent court defeat comes from Dutch media.

A few days ago, Google lost its appeal in a Brussels court against an earlier verdict that prohibited Google News from republishing stories from Belgian printed media. So, what do you do if you're a European in China and want to know what the media back home think about this case? Of course, you go to Google News.

Most of the European coverage of this case comes, strangely enough, from Dutch media -- and it's popping up in the Belgian edition of Google News. This is odd because the Belgian ban applies only to French- and German-language publishers in Belgium; Flemish-language papers did not ask for a ban. Obviously, Google wants to stay on the safe side.

While the English-language blogosphere is abuzz over Google's latest defeat, in Belgium the news is generating little excitement. Most Belgian media (such as De Morgen or De Standaard) are offering rather down-to-earth reports of the verdict, with much background.

Even the smallish Belgian blogosphere is fairly quiet on this issue. "Belgium closes its borders," says weblogger Soulmate, but for for weblogger Barton the biggest news was that Belgium made it to the official Google blog

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