Rupert Murdoch's war on Google

Rupert Murdoch thinks Google and other search engines are thieves and “plagiarists,” and he’s threatening to prevent them from linking to all his newspapers including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and The Times of London. Paired with his plan to charge for all content by next June, Murdoch's argument is that, even though the WSJ website could lose 25 percent of its traffic, it’s better to have fewer readers who pay. Is he onto something? (Watch Rupert Murdoch's comments about Google)

Murdoch doesn’t need Google: Here’s a “little enlightenment for all of you who think Murdoch is making a mistake,” says Mark Cuban in Blog Maverick. This isn’t 2008, and the future isn't about searching for news; it's about having news delivered via Twitter or Facebook, which pose no threat to Murdoch because “140 characters does not a story make.” Rupert is right this time. "Deal with it.”

“Rupert Murdoch to block Google = Smart = Twitter has changed it all”

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Read Murdoch’s actions, not his lips: I’m calling B.S. on Rupert Murdoch’s “angry words” about Google “stealing” his content, says Jack Shafer in Slate. This is just strategic spinning. If it were in his “economic interests to dig an Internet moat around its newspaper properties," Murdoch wouldn't just be talking, he "would have already done it.”

“Read between the lies”

Murdoch’s old-school, but he's shrewd: Murdoch is so “old fashioned,” he hadn’t even used Google a year ago, says Michael Wolff in Newser. But what if he's right? “Rupert may not know from Google," but he does know that traditional publishing truth: "Better to have no readers than readers who cost you more than you make on them.”

“Rupert Murdoch: The Internet does not exist”

This is about wooing Bing, not dissing Google: Murdoch "has no intention of shutting down search-engine traffic to his sites," says Cory Doctorow in Boing Boing. But he does have "lurid fantasies" that the threat of doing so will inspire a "second-tier search engine like Bing or Ask" to pay him for exclusive access to his sites. He likely imagines this would give him a "competitive advantage over Google." It won’t, but he may still get a taker...this once.

“Rupert Murdoch vows to take all of Newscorp’s websites out of Google...”