A renewed effort by Danish newspaper publishers to stop search engines from linking to individual articles rather than a newspaper's homepage has sparked controversy with blogging journalists in the country.

"Deep linking" is a blogger's bread and butter--it's how users are directed to their sites--and search engines, such as Google News, are facing pressure from the Danish Association of Newspaper Publishers who only want homepage links to "better control the user experience."

Currently, Google News in Denmark lists and links articles without paying newspapers royalties.

In 2006, Belgian newspapers sued Google News if they kept linking stories. In Denmark in 2002, web company Newsbooster was taken to court and eventually shut down for emailing links to news articles to customers.

Blogger Ricco Førgaard said that traditional media failed to "move beyond 1994," and understand that online newspaper traffic will finance the news, not royalties from search engines.

Kim Elmose, blog editor of Politiken newspaper, called resistance to deep linking "counterproductive," citing an irony that most journalists use Google as an intrinsic part of reporting.

Source: Global Voices Online via IFRA