Google may not do ‘nice’, but even the omnipotent need to survive

The mighty search engine is putting on a good Samaritan act with its Digital News Initiative, but its munificence isn't all that surprising in a digital world where content, and allies, are vital

And now for a wholly different area of politics. Here's Google, the mightiest search engine in the universe, struggling to win press friends and get the European Union's antitrust campaigners off its back. So here, in turn, is 107m (carved from some $66bn in revenues last year) to start a "Digital News Initiative" that will help eight European newspapers (including the Guardian) to devise fresh platform opportunities, train staff and - via the Reuters Foundation - learn more about the good digital things that are happening across the 28 EU nations. Oh, and we're sorry we haven't been softer and gentler down the years, a European main man tells an FT conference of the great, good and grateful. What's not to like?

There's no instant reason to poll the lucky first eight perhaps - although their initial reaction is a bit suck-it-and-see. Google doesn't do "nice". Google is Godzilla, not Paddington Bear. But let's dig around for theories that might underpin this beneficence.

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