In an interview in Australia, Rupert Murdoch accused Google of stealing stories from News Corporation newspapers for the Google News service, and said he might ban them once he introduces charges for the papersโ online editions. But if he does this, doesnโt it mean his newspaper wont be in the Google index and thus unable to be found by the online netizens searching for information via the search engines? Of course it doesโฆ but does this mean he might have a Machiavellian plan.. maybe the launch of a new Murdoch Search Engineโฆ
Now this is complete speculation on my part but imagine if Mr Murdoch can secure the support of other news organizations (now this is difficult to image but consider it)โฆ then all the best global news outlets are removed from the Google indexโฆ and say they all start to charge for online contentโฆa pay-per-view wall. What would that do to the current dominate position of Google?
But here is why I think phase II would include a new Murdoch Engineโฆ. News Corp could put all their news content on a new โvertical news searchโ perhaps a higher quality version of todayโs Google News. That way, Mr Murdoch will have a platform that:
- starves Google (and other search engines) of content
- provides third party advertising revenue onto an ad platform in which Murdoch controls
- can position as a high-quality vertical news search experience โ wonโt carry poor news content โ meaning non News Corp content (or those news agencies that donโt join this initiative)
- allows subscription incomes to be returned back into his organization (and funding the news gathering/reporting)
- returns the balance of power to the news makers and reportersโฆ not the aggregators
Of course, this is idea is the result of too much coffee and an over active mindโฆ however if this plan is indeed reflective of discussions in the News Corp Boardroom, then I fear we will soon be seeing the demise of freely distributed news contentโฆ
So lets wait and watch.. will we soon be using the Muchdoch Search platform to find whatโs the latest local news?
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