Content Management System firm Atex has beccome a partner of the consortium of publishing groups developing the Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP), a new standard for allowing publishers to regulate automated access to their websites by search engines.
Future releases of Atex software will support the ACAP, said Roberto Antoniotti, chief executive of the Atex Content Management Division said in a statement issued by the World Association of Newspapers.
Few UK newspapers have implemented ACAP and none of the major search engines have so far joined the project.
However, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said last week that the reason Google has not embraced the project was technical.
“At present it does not fit with the way our systems operate,” Schmidt told the Australian technology site. Schmidt also denied that Google was reluctant to embrace the system because of commercial self-interest.
The Google chief’s comments came after WAN president and ACAP chairman Gavin O’Reillyaccused the search giant of misrepresenting publishers’ view of the existing Robots Exclusion Protocol. Those comments came after a Google executive told an industry conference that “the general view” within the company was that the existing model was best for “what publishers need to do”.
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