Microsoft opens the battle for news

Microsoft has offered News Corp, the mother company of the Wall Street Journal amongst others, a significant sum if they would de-index their news pages from Google. Besides News Corp, the software giant has approached other news media with a similar offer, reports Financial Times.

Both Microsoft and News Corp do not comment on the plan.

Microsoft’s move follows remarks made by Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp, that the company thinks about having the news its media publish removed from search engines’ lists and to restrict access to online news to paying visitors.

Microsoft’s proposal could mean the beginning of a battle between search engines to procure the right to index news. If such a competition arises, the likely winners are the news media that have been trying to find ways to make money by posting news online.

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, has announced that the company is willing to invest substantially to shape their search engine Bing into a serious competitor for Google. The proposition can be interpreted as an attempt to attack Google’s margins. Google has reacted coolly and claims news contributes little to its revenue.