Microsoft, News Corp. said to be weighing Web pact

[CHIMO]

Source: Reuters

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT-Q29.62-0.16-0.54%) has had talks with News Corp. about a tie up, which would involve News Corp. getting paid to take its news websites off Google Inc. (GOOG-Q569.96-3.03-0.53%) , a source familiar with the matter said Sunday.

News Corp., which owns such papers as the Wall Street Journal and the Sun, started the discussions, which were at an early stage, the source said.

Microsoft has also talked with other online publishers about removing their sites from Google, according to the Financial Times , which first reported the development.

Microsoft could not be reached immediately Sunday. News Corp declined to comment. The source is anonymous because the talks are not public.



Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/microsoft-news-corp-said-to-be-weighing-web-pact/article1373326/

[Kablooie]

1. Good news! No more Fox news articles will pop up in searches!

[quakerboy]

2. Cause thats going to stop people from using google

mmmhmmm. righto then.

[Matariki]

3. Good! Very good! Murdoch thinks he's bigger than Google

as he makes his media less and less relevant.

[bkohatlanta]

4. OXYMORONIC Fox News

Microsoft will simply be the FAUX NUSE Channel. I'll stick with Google News where you can hear the truth!

[NJCher]

5. Google should thank Murdoch

For enhancing their search engine.

Oh, boohoo.

No crappy Murdoch propaganda.

Woe is me! :cry:

Breaks my heart!! :nopity:


Cher

[John Kerry VonErich]

6. More eyeing of NBC Universal (ie- MSNBC)

nt

[Turborama]

11. Microsoft owns 18% of MSNBC TV & MS and NBC are 50-50 partners in msnbc.com

it was announced on December 23, 2005, that NBC Universal would purchase a majority stake in the television network, which left Microsoft with 18%. The two companies remain 50-50 partners in msnbc.com. MSNBC shares the NBC logo of a rainbow peacock with its sister channels NBC, CNBC and ShopNBC. MSNBC is available in over 78 million households in the United States; and between June 2008 and May 2009, msnbc.com had the most unique visitors among global news and current events websites. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSNBC

Looks like Murdoch has his eyes on the MSNBC website where nearly all the shows can be downloaded from anywhere in the world for free.

[groundloop]

7. Microsoft paying corporations not to use a competitors service -

Sounds like Microsoft might be setting itself up for another round of antitrust and fair trade problems.

[DallasNE]

8. One Would Hope So

When Microsoft rolled out Internet 8 it was full of bugs. One presumes Windows 7 has more than its share of bugs as well. This makes me wonder why News Corp would even want to hook up with Microsoft.

[Hyper_Eye]

9. I am not a Windows fan but...

My main desktop has been Linux for years. My secondary desktop is a Mac. I work and play on Unix systems and they are what I am most comfortable with. I do have a laptop with Windows loaded on it (mainly for software porting purposes.) I recently upgraded it to Windows 7 because Vista was not working well at all. I have been impressed with Windows 7. It is very solid and it has some really nice features (many of which were borrowed from Mac and some of those Mac borrowed from Linux.) All of the problems I had with Vista are solved in Windows 7 and I would say it is as solid, so far, as 98 SE or even Windows XP. Would I leave it running without a reboot as long as my Linux system or my Mac? I doubt it. But it is a solid system and anybody who is running Windows Vista should be seriously considering moving to it (or install Linux and enjoy freedom.)

As for the topic at hand, I don't really see this as being an unfair business practice. Content creators have every right to choose where that content can be accessed and they have every right to work out deals like this. The only party that may benefit from this is Microsoft as it may move a particular subset of a particular group of people to use their search engine who otherwise wouldn't have. For News Corp. there is no benefit in this. They are giving up a massive percentage of search engine traffic. In fact they would be giving up the vast majority of it and it would be a long long time before they could get it back if ever. This is a really stupid move on the part of News Corp. It isn't so stupid on the part of Microsoft.

[cstanleytech]

13. Exactly what I was thinking.

[FatDave]

10. I'll help anybody who wants to migrate to Linux.

Though it's not a great choice if you do a lot of video editing. There's not a good free video editor yet.

[Turborama]

12. OIf course this info would come from the Financial Times

The only daily newspaper that charges a fee to read it online.