Globally news related queries form just 2% of search: Kate Beddoe

'News is one of the most powerful ways of answering some of the questions that people come to Google for', said Beddoe

The world’s largest search engine, Google, a part of the $183-billion Alphabet Group, dominates the digital news ecosystem. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar spoke to Kate Beddoe, director for news partnerships in the Asia Pacific region, on what news means for Google in India. Edited excerpts:

Google is positioned quirkily in the online news ecosystem. You are a search engine, an aggregator and a competitor to the very brands that you depend on. How do you tackle the conflicts inherent in this?

Our relationship with news is symbiotic. The primary goal is to make sure that quality information is available to our users.