Rupert Murdoch: Crazy Like a Fox?

Rupert Murdoch‘s recent avowals that News Corp. intends to prohibit Google from accessing for free content published on his newspapers’ web sites may seem like an empty threat. After all, Murdoch’s IT people could cut off Google today.

But why simply cut Google off from your content when you can strike a deal with some chump a valued partner who will pay you to cut Google off from your content?

From London’s Financial Times:

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 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.

As the FT.com article notes, Microsoft’s proposal could pressure Google to start paying for content it now offers for free. But that all depends on how much pain Google will feel if News Corp. and other content producers take Redmond cash to cut out the search giant. Google currently has more than 65% share of the search market. Yahoo has about 18% and Microsoft’s Bing just under 10%. How much will those numbers have to change for Google to do something (pay for content) that could open a Pandora’s box?

Over at The AtlanticWire, John Hudson has gathered some opinions about the rumored Microsoft-Murdoch scheme. Billionaire Mark Cuban, for one, thinks it just might work.

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