Paris (AFP)

Google boss Sundar Pichai announced that the US giant would invest $ 1 billion in partnerships with news publishers around the world on Thursday in a blog post.

"This financial commitment (...) will compensate publishers for creating and selecting high quality content" for an "experience" of online information, writes Mr. Pichai.

He specifies that the new product that Google will offer will be available first on Google News on Android, then on Google News on iOS (the operating system for Apple mobile devices).

Ultimately, the Google News Showcase will also be deployed via standard searches (Google Search) and on Google Discover, the personalized information flow offered by Google.

According to Mr. Pichai, Google has already signed agreements for this new content, grouped together in a "Google News showcase", with nearly 200 publishers in Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Among these publishers, Google cites Der Spiegel, Stern, Die Zeit, Folha de S.Paulo, as well as more local publishers such as "El Litoral, GZH, WAZ and SooToday".

Google is also negotiating deals in other countries such as India, Belgium and the Netherlands, says Sundar Pichai.

Mr. Pichai does not mention France in his blog post, while Google is engaged in this country in difficult negotiations with press editors on the issue of neighboring rights.

But according to Sébastien Missoffe, the boss of Google France, the Google News Showcase is indeed part of these ongoing discussions.

"As part of these negotiations" on neighboring rights, "we have also offered our new Google News Showcase program," Missoffe said in a statement sent to AFP.

"We remain more than ever mobilized with the press editors to bring our help to their project of digital transformation, and to support a quality journalism", he indicated.

According to Sundar Pichai, the "Google News Showcase" will consist of dedicated spaces allowing participating publishers to "format" their articles in order to provide "more depth and context" through timelines, presentation cutouts, and related articles.

“Other components like video, audio, and daily highlights will follow,” said Sundar Pichai.

© 2020 AFP