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Murdoch vs. Google

by Erik Kain on November 9, 2009

Rupert Murdoch, media mogul extrordinaire, has decided that links coming from the search engine monolith Google are parasitic and should be banned outright.  Yes – what most of us online strive for – links from everywhere and especially Google – Murdoch has decided actually hurts his business model.  This really, really confuses the hell out of me.

I was always under the impression that links pointing people to your content improved the visibility of that content – paywall or no.  I guess, one way or another, this move will be a great experiment for the online news model.


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Tagged as: google, Rupert Murdoch, search engines

Erik Kain is a blogger and freelance writer. Currently he serves as Editor-in-Chief of The League of Ordinary Gentlemen and writes a tech blog at Forbes. Visit his politics blog here. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The National Review, The Washington Examiner, and the now-defunct True/Slant. You can also contact him via email.

{ 2 comments }

1 Katherine November 9, 2009 at 11:21 am

I see Google winning this one. They’re a well-liked as a giant, highly powerful company can be. Murdoch…isn’t.

2 JosephFM November 9, 2009 at 10:46 pm

I think I understand what he’s getting at: he’s a control freak who doesn’t like anyone else making money off of his corp’s IP, even if it’s only by showing ads next to links to it.

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