Microsoft and News Corp. to End the Era of Quality Free Content. (And kill Search along with it...)
First Murdoch announced that he would charge for all content in his media empire. This was a shock in itself – it defies the free models that have dominated media since the internet’s conception, and threatened to end the era of free quality news that we have enjoyed.
And now, Murdoch plans to remove all his content from being searchable through Google. Why? He says that it’s not about the quantity of traffic his sites get, but rather the proportion of those visits that are paying customers. He believes that people who will pay for his content will not need a search engine to discover it; therefore he sees no benefit in keeping his sites searchable.
What I don’t understand is why he NEEDS to remove his content from Google’s search engine. It’s not like it reduces the number of paying customers – if anything, it will simply increase consumer awareness of his newspapers. At least, I didn’t understand until it was announced that Microsoft was in discussions with News Corp. to buy sole rights to their content.
Imagine a world in which you had to remember which search engines would contain the exact content you are looking for. In other words, imagine a world where there are no useful search engines – as this is what Murdoch is threatening by even entering into negotiations with Microsoft.
Let’s run through the scenario. Microsoft pays News Corp around $20 million (as this is what estimates point towards, by looking at the share of News Corp.’s revenue that is driven through search) in return for the right to make News Corp’s content solely searchable through Bing.
Obviously if this deal goes through, it will be plastered upon news websites, papers, and blogs for days, if not weeks. People will realize that if they are looking for news, they should turn to Bing as it now has all of News Corp.’s content (a huge chunk of the international newspaper media). So Bing will get a large increase in traffic. Until Google buys sole rights to Time Warner’s content (think CNN).
What happens now? Well, besides the desperate bidding by search engines and the looks of glee from the news companies, news consumers are faced with a dilemma.
The purpose of a search engines is, as Google’s Marissa Mayer puts it, “to make the world’s information universally accessible and useful”.
But is it really accessible OR useful if we are forced to choose between different search engines depending on what information we are searching for? A key component to what makes search engines of today so useful is the ability to choose the content that best matches your search, with all the options laid out in order of relevance before you. However, if the Bing-News. Corp deal happened, you would be put in a situation where only certain news would show up on any given search engine. Therefore, to see a wide range of news of which some is m ore likely to match your search, you will need to be searching multiple search engines.
Microsoft and News Corp. both have unquestionably large p ower and influence. There is a real possibility that this deal could happen, and search will be fundamentally changed forever.
In turn, there is also a possibility that Microsoft could come out worse off than when it started. With an already negative image, Microsoft cannot afford any more mistakes that could worsen this public image. With a move such as this that stifles innovation and competitiveness, there is a chance that Microsoft could be held up for another antitrust suit. Microsoft simply cannot afford to have this happen, and if I was them I would not take the risk.
While the move may be positive for both Microsoft and News Corp., it is most certainly negative for all consumers. In my opinion, Microsoft and News Corp. will feel a backlash of negative press and will both come out worse off than when they went into the deal.
Google should simply stick to their motto of "Do no evil" and they should come out the other side unscathed.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this..
Michael Moore-Jones @mmoorejones
