Make 'Em Work For It
On the Rumored Deal Between Bing and News Corp.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 @ 9:10 AM
Articles like this one always get under my skin.
On the rumors of Microsoft forging an exclusive deal with News Corp., the writers deduce the following, prejudging the concept of a deal as though it stood somehow in violation of the principles responsible for making the Web what it is today (thanks, presumably, to Google):
The Web’s explosive growth has been driven, in part, by the open playing field it represents for consumers and businesses. These discussions could encourage major technology and media companies to start picking sides — essentially applying the cable TV model to the Web.
A deal on a large scale would create a new set of barriers for users to navigate and would represent an enormous risk for the News Corporation or any news site. More than 65 percent of all search inquiries in the United States are made on Google, and removing links from there would lead to a big drop in traffic. Bing handles 9.9 percent of domestic searches, according to comScore.
That's just ridiculous. It's called network neutrality, kiddies -- not site neutrality. Exclusive deals abound, everywhere, on the Web as well as off. What's being discussed between Microsoft and News Corp., to the extent anything really is being discussed, is surely nothing more than an agreement preventing Google from displaying News Corp. content on its News microsite, in exchange for displaying it on Bing's. Users would, I'm sure, continue to be able to access News Corp.'s deliciously fair-and-balanced content on any number of News Corp.'s sites.
Google's dominance in the search-advertising market isn't good for anyone but Google, and Murdoch, much as I happen despise the guy as a political force, is actually right to complain about Google stealing his company's original content. It absolutely does. It steals news content and then muscles that content's creators into taking it and liking it, lest they lose the referral traffic Google sends them by linking to that content in its original form.
Fight on, Microsoft! Make 'em work for it, I say.
