Microsoft to pay for News Corp de-indexing

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

by jacquesm • 17 years ago

3 10 17 years ago

bumblebird3• 17 years ago

Anyone paste the text of the article? Maybe I'm just silly but I will never ever ever register somewhere just to read an article. Maybe this throws a spanner in News Corps plans as well, or maybe I'm not most people.

smanek• 17 years ago

Why won't you ever register?

They are spending resources (time, money, etc) to create content. In exchange for access to their content they ask you to spend 30 seconds registering.

Sometimes, the content in question isn't worth the 30 seconds of overhead to register for. But, sometimes it is. And, often times, it's worth a lot more (e.g., I'm a paying subscriber to The Economist, Foreign Affairs, Linux Journal, Make, etc).

I personally think the FT puts out enough consistently high quality stuff that it's worth the 30 seconds of my time to register in exchange for access. I could see how you might disagree though. But, what I don't understand is how you think there is no possible content that is worth 30 seconds of overhead to access.

ryanwaggoner2• 17 years ago

It's not a logical reaction, it's a kneejerk reaction that grows of out an entitlement mentality that says everything on the web should be open, unrestricted, and free.

Before you vote me down, let me confess that I also fall into this camp: I often find myself spending hours to avoid spending $10, without even thinking about it.

This attitude is part of why tech people make lousy markets.

bumblebird3• 17 years ago

Because the article might be stupid. They might popup ads.

It's like a busker asking for a tip before they play anything.

My point is: Let me judge the content first, THEN ask me to signup/subscribe.

lpgauth• 17 years ago

"You have viewed your 30 days allowance of 2 free articles. If you wish to view more, you can register for free by clicking on the button below."

How do they know this, I cleared my cookies/cache... Are they blocking by IP? Seems a little shady.

windsurfer• 17 years ago

Probably a flash cookie. Browsers don't clean those out.

jacquesm• 17 years ago

Apologies, I did not realize the link would switch to registration after posting, I will refrain from posting ft articles again.

687• 17 years ago

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.

One website publisher approached by Microsoft said that the plan “puts enormous value on content if search engines are prepared to pay us to index with them”.

Microsoft’s interest is being interpreted as a direct assault on Google because it puts pressure on the search engine to start paying for content.

“This is all about Microsoft hurting Google’s margins,” said the web publisher who is familiar with the plan.

But the biggest beneficiary of the tussle could be the newspaper industry, which has yet to construct a reliable online business model that adequately replaces declining print and advertising revenues.

In a possible sign of negotiations to come, Google last week played down the importance of newspaper content.

Matt Brittin, Google’s UK director, told a Society of Editors conference that Google did not need news content to survive. “Economically it’s not a big part of how we generate revenue,” he said.

News Corp has been exploring online payment models for its newspapers and has taken an increasingly hard line against Google.

Rupert Murdoch, News Corp chairman, has said that he would use legal methods to prevent Google “stealing stories” published in his papers.

Microsoft is desperate to catch Google in search and, after five years and hundreds of millions of dollars of losses, Bing, launched in June, marks its most ambitious attempt yet.

Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, has said that the company is prepared to spend heavily for many years to make Bing a serious rival to Google.

Microsoft has sought to differentiate Bing by drawing in material not found elsewhere, though it has not demanded exclusivity from content partners. Bing accounted for 9.9 per cent of searches in the US in October, up from 8.4 per cent at its launch, according to ComScore.

James Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp Europe and Asia, hinted last week that the company was making progress with its online plans. “We think that there’s a very exciting marketplace, potentially a wholesale market place for digital journalism that we’ll be developing,” he said

Microsoft to pay for News Corp de-indexing

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