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- Recent Google search algorithm changes may have exacerbated online book piracy, according to new research.
- Textbook subscription service Perlego analyzed traffic to book-piracy sites and found surges coinciding with the updates.
- Textbook publisher Wiley said firms like Google needed a 'proactive' approach to tackle piracy.
Recent changes to Google's search algorithm may have exacerbated online book piracy, according to data compiled by online textbook subscription service Perlego.
Every year, American publishers lose out on around $300 million from people downloading illegal copies of books online, according to a 2017 study published by Digimarc and Nielsen. Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, said in 2019 the figure had likely grown.
Perlego, which charges users a monthly subscription to access academic, professional, and non-fiction e-books, monitored five years' worth of search traffic to the top online book piracy sites.
The firm used SEO analysis tool Ahrefs, which tracks how live websites "link to each other and what keywords they rank for in search results," and with Keywords Everywhere, a tool that allows users to more precisely monitor Google search traffic.
It detected recent surges in traffic to the most popular book piracy sites, which Insider is choosing not to name, that coincided with a two-part "core update" by Google to its search results...
Read Full Story: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-updates-helped-book-piracy-flourish-research-shows-2021-10
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