Michael Arrington, no staunch defender of legacy media, nevertheless can spot an opening when he sees one. In this case, he has some advice for Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. as it strives to de-index itself from Google.
Murdoch has been criticized in recent days for suggesting that's his strategy. Traffic will decline and others will offer content free for which he's seeking payment, the argument goes.
But Arrington, riffing on an idea from Mahalo CEO (and former News Corp. exec) Jason Calacanis floated, suggests the way to win the war is to start one. Namely, he suggests Google would be hurt if Murdoch's Wall Street Journal and, say, the New York Times opted to exclusively index with Microsoft's Bing search engine instead of mammoth Google.
Arrington believes the shift of power would revert to content companies, bidding wars might ensue,
"If Murdoch is going to go through with this de-indexing Mexican standoff thing, he might as well do it the right way and drive the fear of God into Google. As a spectator, I’ll enjoy watching the fireworks," Arrington writes.
Murdoch has been criticized in recent days for suggesting that's his strategy. Traffic will decline and others will offer content free for which he's seeking payment, the argument goes.
But Arrington, riffing on an idea from Mahalo CEO (and former News Corp. exec) Jason Calacanis floated, suggests the way to win the war is to start one. Namely, he suggests Google would be hurt if Murdoch's Wall Street Journal and, say, the New York Times opted to exclusively index with Microsoft's Bing search engine instead of mammoth Google.
Arrington believes the shift of power would revert to content companies, bidding wars might ensue,
"If Murdoch is going to go through with this de-indexing Mexican standoff thing, he might as well do it the right way and drive the fear of God into Google. As a spectator, I’ll enjoy watching the fireworks," Arrington writes.
