Over the weekend we revealed that News Corp and Microsoft were in talks to “de-index” News Corp’s content from Google, in favour of Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

By today it was clear that this is part of a broader move by Microsoft to boost Bing by getting publishers to cut their sites off from Google.

It sounds like a long shot, but the FT’s John Gapper says it “could be a pivotal moment in internet economics.” He points out that random traffic from search engines is not as valuable as repeat traffic from paying subscribers.

“Mr Murdoch appears to have decided he will not lose very much by ditching Google traffic and even a fairly small payment from Microsoft would compensate. He is attempting to get distributors to pay for content in the way that US cable operators pay cable networks for programming.”

However even if “negotiations between Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Microsoft resulted in an exclusive deal with Bing, an alliance would make little long term difference to the media landscape,” writes the FT’s Lex column.

“Microsoft has poured money into its online division for years without profit. It cannot afford to fund the newspaper industry indefinitely. Its search market share of 10 per cent is too small to force Google to change its behaviour.”

Read John Gapper’s post here. Read the full Lex note here.

Tags: bing, google, microsoft, News Corp., rupert murdoch

November 23, 2009 10:39pm in Tech | Comment