Will Microsoft Force Google to Pay for News Content?

NewsCorp’s Rupert Murdoch’s crusade against Google is definitely starting to sizzle.  Mr. Murdoch’s assault against Google started last week when he said that he might resort to legal actions to stop Google from “stealing stories” published in his company’s various newspaper publications.  And now look who is coming to the side of NewsCorp? – Bing.CNN is reporting that Microsoft and News Corp are currently discussing some general plans against Google – more particularly to push the “de-indexing” of News Corp’s contents from Google.  The trade-off?  Microsoft will pay News Corp. for doing so.

Interestingly, News Corp seems to be not the only online content publisher that was approached by Microsoft, says this report.   Large news publishers were reportedly being courted by Microsoft to de-list their news content from Google’s index.

Another interesting aspect of this issue is of course the fact that Mr. Murdoch who started the attack against Google happens to be co-owner of Microsoft Bing. Now, you see the picture?

And what does Google has to say about this?  Matt Brittin, Google’s UK director mentioned was quoted during the Society of Editors Conference -  “Economically it’s not a big part of how we generate revenue.”

I guess that pretty much sums up Google’s stand.