Microsoft and News Corp Eye Web Pact

[RoyGBiv]

Remember that little story about Murdoch "threatening" to de-list his properties from Google's search engine. I thought at the time that this was a salvo in his war on "fair use" doctrine, and I still think it may be a part of his long-term goal. But, I failed to remember that Murdoch always has a more immediate business angle in everything he does.

This is about Bing and a marriage of sorts with Microsoft.

Microsoft and News Corp eye web pact

By Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles, Richard Waters in San Francisco and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York

Published: November 22 2009 23:01 | Last updated: November 22 2009 23:01

Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company being paid to “de-index” its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry.

The impetus for the discussions came from News Corp, owner of newspapers ranging from the Wall Street Journal of the US to The Sun of the UK, said a person familiar with the situation, who warned that talks were at an early stage.

However, the Financial Times has learnt that Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google’s search engine.

News Corp and Microsoft, which owns the rival Bing search engine, declined to comment.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a243c8b2-d79b-11de-b578-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

This is not only a direct attack on Google, but a frontal assault on who controls information on the web.

cc: General Discussion

[canetoad]

1. When Murdoch first announced

his plan for paid news content, I wondered if he has a little touch of dementia. He is 78 after all and has had a very public 'late-mid' life crisis with his marriage to Wendi Deng. He may well consider that News Corp and it's subsidiary media outlets has a captive audience who enjoy the salacious and sensationalistic style of reporting but the big question is whether this audience will pay regularly to receive their fix. I don't think they will.

On the other hand, he has two young children with Wendi Deng and I wonder if this is creating tension with his offspring from previous marriages. It may also be causing him to look to the coming generations of media consumers whom, I believe, will be far less discriminating in their choice of sources.

Those of us who have seen the advent of computers and the internet tend to be more critical of the ways that content, software, operating systems, are delivered to us than young people who take the giant corporations very much for granted as the simplest way to quickly get what they want. Add to the mix the hordes of 30 - 80 year olds who have absolutely no interest in excercising discernment or critical thinking and just want to click a button and make things work. Those are the people that a News Corp/Microsoft alliance will aim to milk.

I can't say whether this will be profitable for them. I don't think it will but can never underestimate the propensity for media consumers to be led by the nose.

[RoyGBiv]

2. Profitability ...

If it were Murdoch by himself, I'd scoff the way I scoffed when I first heard he was whining about Google.

Whether this rises to the level of profitability for him personally will depend in large part on how many others Microsoft can pull into some kind of exclusivity (or at least anti-Google) deal. What worries me is what Google will do to retaliate ... and they will retaliate.

Players like MS and News Corp are, down the road, trying very hard to make accessibility to information a pay service. Screwing around with search results in this manner is one cog in that machine.

[canetoad]

3. Google are in a good position to retaliate in some way

It's all about dependency and habit. Far too many people are dependent on gmail, google search, maps, apps and so on, to the point that they will put up with just about anything just so their little google world is not disturbed. The only way News/MS can be profitable is to create dependency among users - not as single entities as they are now, but as a conglomeration of intertwined 'essential' services.

I wonder if the motherlode in such an alliance is the list of subscribers details it will produce and the ability to cross-reference and aim advertising at them.

[guyton]

4. can't happen soon enough for me!

I've tried to customize news.google.com to remove fauxnews and it's really hard (impossible) to do.

blocking them from google would be the best thing I can think of for the quality of news and searches both!

[Wiley50]

5. This is where I learn to use linux n/t

[Deja Q]

6. Maybe Apple isn't so overpriced after all...

:)

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