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News/Media Alliance Calls on FTC, DOJ to Investigate Google’s Misappropriation of Digital News Publishing, Stop Expansion of Generative AI Overviews Offering

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Today, the News/Media Alliance sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), urging the agencies to investigate Google’s monopolistic taking of digital news publishing and stop its latest expansion through its use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) within its ubiquitous search product “before the effects become irreversible.”

ARLINGTON, Va., May 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the News/Media Alliance sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), urging the agencies to investigate Google’s monopolistic taking of digital news publishing and stop its latest expansion through its use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) within its ubiquitous search product “before the effects become irreversible.”

“AI companies and news publications should coexist, but one-sided, forced offerings without the ability to opt out does not achieve that goal.”

Focusing on Google’s new AI Overviews offering, the letter notes that Google is misappropriating newspaper, magazine and digital media publishers’ investments into high-quality journalism, starving publishers of traffic and creating conditions that encourage users to remain on its platform instead of clicking through to get the information directly from the original content creators.

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), first introduced on May 10, 2023, and released nationwide effective May 14, 2024, uses publisher content to generate comprehensive “AI Overview” answers to user queries. In practice, this means Google is generating “new” content derived from the content in its search index, including original and breaking news content, which it prioritizes at the top of its search results. By letting “Google do the googling,” the express intention of AI Overviews is to reduce demand to third-party websites.

“Google is already known as the world’s dominant search engine, and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) showed at trial how Google illegally monopolized that market. Now, Google is abusing its power in search to use publishers’ content – without payment or permission – to power Google AI Overviews and its other GAI products to exclude competition.” – News/Media Alliance letter to the FTC and DOJ

News/Media Alliance President and CEO, Danielle Coffey said, “AI companies and news publications should coexist, but one-sided, forced offerings without the ability to opt out does not achieve that goal. Google claims that this new product will result in increased traffic, but one of many studies estimates that 90% of users will never leave Google’s search results page. Disintermediating publishers and readers and preventing publishers from monetizing their content will inevitably lead to the further decline of our news ecosystem and critical reporting Americans want and need.”

In addition, by replacing the need for users to visit publishers’ underlying websites, Google’s AI Overviews have significantly reduced publishers’ ability to monetize their content through advertising, subscriptions, and affiliate links, and instead driven that monetization directly to Google.

The letter also raises Google’s recently enacted Site Reputation Abuse policy that has effectively eradicated publishers’ coupon pages, and sports betting, lottery, and gaming content from Google Search results, harming not only publishers but also the millions of readers and businesses who rely on such content.

“Adding insult to injury, Google’s SGE/AI Overviews almost immediately began showing promo codes in response to some queries, even as it delisted rival publishers’ coupon sites offering identical types of promotions,” the letter states.

Coffey said, “Over time the value exchange that once existed with opting into Google search is no longer the reality. Feeding more of our content to users inside Google’s walls has not in fact led to proportionally increased revenue, as the dominant search engine asserts. Our white paper previously submitted on this topic demonstrates the cause and effect of this dynamic. This is yet another practice that cuts against publisher’s interests and will lead to further decline of quality content these AI offerings rely upon to deliver accurate results. This is bad for society, and bad for the AI offerings themselves.”

Read the full letter here.

Media Contact

Lindsey Loving, News/Media Alliance, 571-366-1000, lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org, www.newsmediaalliance.org

 

View original content:https://www.prweb.com/releases/newsmedia-alliance-calls-on-ftc-doj-to-investigate-googles-misappropriation-of-digital-news-publishing-stop-expansion-of-generative-ai-overviews-offering-302157540.html

SOURCE News/Media Alliance

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Starburst Announces Strategic Investment from Citi

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BOSTON, May 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Starburst, the data platform for apps and AI, today announced a strategic investment from Citi.

Starburst’s platform enables organizations to unify access to distributed data, across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments, without the need for data duplication or complex migrations.

Starburst’s vision is to deliver cutting-edge AI and analytics solutions on an open, hybrid data lakehouse foundation.The investment strengthens the company’s momentum in enabling global enterprises to build secure, scalable, and intelligent data applications.By bringing AI “lakeside,” Starburst eliminates the traditional friction between data, governance, and AI. Starburst’s technology is used by 10 of the top 15 banks.

The investment was made through Citi’s Markets Innovation & Investments division. “We’re excited to collaborate with Starburst to help shape the future of enterprise data and AI,” said Lee Smallwood, Global Head of Markets Innovation and Investments, Citi. “Our strategic investment reflects Citi’s commitment to advancing a modern, AI-ready data infrastructure, prioritizing governance, performance, and flexibility to power mission-critical financial services in a global, regulated environment.”

“Our mission is to meet the data challenges faced by complex, global institutions,” said Justin Borgman, CEO and Co-Founder of Starburst. “We’re proud to provide our clients with a secure, high-performance platform that enables access to data wherever it lives. Citi’s investment reinforces our mission to remove barriers between data and insight, especially in industries where speed, trust, and governance are non-negotiable.”

Starburst continues to expand its reach into high-demand, regulated industries where AI is becoming a cornerstone of transformation.

About Starburst 

Starburst is the data platform built for flexibility, delivering fast, secure access to all your data, wherever it lives. Whether on-premises, across clouds, or in hybrid environments, Starburst provides choice and control to your architecture. Built on an open data stack with Trino and Apache Iceberg, it unifies distributed data without complex or costly migrations, unleashing the full power of the data lakehouse for analytics and AI.

With our Lakeside AI architecture, enterprises gain federated access, governed collaboration, and full data lineage, laying the foundation for scalable, compliant AI innovation. Starburst empowers data-intensive and security-conscious organizations to unlock the full potential of their data while ensuring performance, governance, and control.

Enterprises in 60+ countries, including Comcast, Citigroup, and 4 of the top 5 global banks, trust Starburst to maximize data value. Our strategic partnerships with AWS, Dell Technologies, and top cloud providers ensures seamless interoperability across environments.

From insights to action to AI, Starburst fuels innovation at every level. Learn more at starburst.ai.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2286645/Starburst_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/starburst-announces-strategic-investment-from-citi-302456965.html

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Ecotrak Launches Self-Service CMMS, Empowering Small Businesses to Take Control of Facilities Management

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IRVINE, Calif., May 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Ecotrak, the leading provider of facility and asset management software for multi-location businesses, has officially launched Ecotrak Build, a self-service CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) designed specifically for small business operators. Built from the ground up for speed, simplicity, and affordability, Ecotrak Build is now available for just $25 per year, per location—and includes a 30-day free trial.

With the launch of its self-service portal, Ecotrak is removing traditional barriers to entry like implementation delays and expensive onboarding. Small business owners can now sign up in minutes, set up locations, find vendors, and start managing their repairs from one easy-to-use platform.

“We built Ecotrak Build for the operators who do it all—the ones wearing five hats and still trying to keep their equipment running,” said Daniel Castleman, VP of Product at Ecotrak. “There hasn’t been a robust CMMS solution made specifically for small business. Build changes that. It’s affordable, it’s powerful, and it’s ready to go when you are.”

Key features of Ecotrak Build include:

Instant access to pre-vetted service providers

Unlimited work orders and invoices

Support for up to 10 locations during the free trial

Mobile app for fast, on-the-go service requests

A clean, intuitive dashboard

From plumbing issues and HVAC breakdowns to equipment maintenance and emergency repairs, Ecotrak Build gives operators the ability to respond fast, assign vendors, track progress, and manage costs—all in real time.

The self-service experience was designed to be plug-and-play:

Create an accountAdd your locationsInvite and assign vendorsSubmit your first service requestStart tracking work

Build is ideal for quick-service restaurants, franchise owners, coffee shops, gyms, salons, convenience stores, and any other small business that depends on equipment working day in and day out. Unlike enterprise CMMS tools built for corporate facilities teams, Build meets operators where they are—with simple workflows, mobile-first access, and no unnecessary complexity.

The platform is now live at www.ecotrak.com/pricing, where new users can sign up and begin their 30-day free trial.

About Ecotrak

Ecotrak is more than a facility management platform—it’s your partner in the trenches. Built for businesses that can’t afford downtime, Ecotrak delivers real solutions, real insights, and real support to help facility teams run smoother, spend smarter, and plan for the long haul.

With an intuitive, easy-to-use platform, Ecotrak simplifies asset management, work orders, and service provider coordination—so facility teams can stop putting out fires and start making bigger-picture decisions. Whether it’s preventing breakdowns, maximizing budgets, or optimizing operations, Ecotrak is right there with you, every step of the way. Together, we run it. For more information, visit ecotrak.com.

Ecotrak Media Contact
Shawna Moore
Director of Marketing
shawna@ecotrak.com
(310) 365-7634

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ecotrak-launches-self-service-cmms-empowering-small-businesses-to-take-control-of-facilities-management-302458187.html

SOURCE Ecotrak Facility Management Software

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T-Kartor Introduces Field-Proven, Cloud-Native Geospatial Platform

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Packaged solution to simplify integration and maximize performance for geospatial operations

ST. LOUIS, May 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — T-Kartor, the leader in harnessing geospatial solutions for real-world impact, announced today the release of the latest version of its proven geospatial platform. This platform streamlines individual components and capabilities into a single, cohesive platform for data management, analysis and decision-making.

Geospatial information can help public and private organizations unlock new opportunities, make secure decisions for communities, and gain strategic insights that can be used for further business growth and operational resilience. T-Kartor’s platform brings together all of this information from disparate sources to help organizations manage, analyze, visualize, and disseminate new insights that help inform improved decision-making.

With the upgraded platform, users gain:

A simplified codebase ensures more consistency and streamlined communication between T-Kartor products such as Iris and Orion, ultimately maximizing the value of customers’ investments.New tools for evaluating an organization’s spatial and non-spatial data holdings help illustrate which resources are used most and which are underused and identify the source of requests and geographies queried most often.Ability to elastically scale up, down, or out as compute resources are needed.New enhanced external APIs for machine-to-machine communication and integration into legacy workflows and systems that make extending the T-Kartor platform into existing architectures easier than ever before.

Anthony Calamito, chief strategy officer, T-Kartor, said: “Many geospatial software platforms exist on the market, but few, if any, are cloud-native and designed specifically for modern DevOps environments. What T-Kartor is bringing to market will fundamentally change how software is provisioned and scaled to support enterprise geospatial operations by providing insight into what an organization uses most often, how much compute power is needed, and where resources may be better allocated.” 

Magnus Persson, vice president of products, T-Kartor, said: “As a cloud-first product company, we are focused on engineering our products to be best suited to modern, DevOps architectures and deployment patterns to meet the demands of our customers today. We continue to evolve our platform to work in containerized environments (both Kubernetes and Docker) to support the needs of our customers.”

To learn more about how the new T-Kartor platform can help you get better geospatial insights for a changing world, visit here or meet the team live at the GEOINT Symposium at Booth 1141 from May 18-21.

About T-Kartor

T-Kartor USA is an agile, innovative business combining cartographic, GIS, and programming skills to deliver high-quality and affordable solutions. T-Kartor USA, located in St Louis, Missouri, is a subsidiary of T-Kartor Group AB, a privately-owned entity founded in Kristianstad Sweden in 1985. T-Kartor has offices in five countries; Sweden, Norway, Finland, the U.K., and the U.S. T-Kartor Group AB is committed to providing services and platforms for geospatial solutions, seamless one-feature-one-time map production, world-class city wayfinding, and integrated public transport information.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/t-kartor-introduces-field-proven-cloud-native-geospatial-platform-302458224.html

SOURCE T-Kartor

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