Microsoft and News Corp Forging Anti-Google Web Pact

Microsoft wants to pay Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to pull its material from Google's search index and list with Bing exclusively. In other words, Bing will have exclusive rights to deliver search results for News Corp content. In terms of making a quick buck, I can see how this is attractive to Rupert Murdoch, but, in terms of long- (or even medium-) term health for his online properties, this is a really bad idea.

I'm not sure that Rupert Murdoch entirely understands the true dynamic of the web's balance of power. "Content is king" is a cute slogan, but how that content is packaged, served and found are far more valuable to a business, especially when we're talking about mainstream news, which tends to replicate in terms of subject matter across properties to the point of near-interchangeability. In other words, when you surf across MSM websites, you'll see fairly similar content presented in slightly different formats.

If News Corp really wants to pull itself from the world's largest search engine, then that's fine: the corresponding plunge in traffic will serve as a quick object lesson. Who's the bigger fish in the online world, News Corp or Google? Did I even need to ask? Google has no real incentive to pay to index any news company's content, since they serve relatively few ads on Google news pages, so, if News Corp pulled out of Google, the search giant wouldn't suffer too much. Ultimately the victim here will be Bing, who will be saddled with a bill to News Corp while the "exclusive" content isn't that exclusive after all, and likely won't leave much of a desire for Google users to switch browsers. Users can find the same material via CNN, Al Jazeera, BBC, Guardian, NYTimes, Bloomberg, SMH, M&G, etc, etc, etc.

Would a Google News ecosystem without News Corp material look different? Yes, but I bet most surfers wouldn't notice.

This leads to another question, though: which, if any, other news organizations has Microsoft approached in its attempt to catch up to Google?

Any newspaper is able to remove their content from Google's index. It takes two minutes. You've probably noticed that this is not a popular action, because ultimately online publications want viewers. An up-front financial arrangement makes this more attractive, if you're a third-grader. In pre-web terms, how much would someone have to pay for you to willingly take your business out of the Yellow Pages?