Nofollow - "ooh, it's too difficult"

[directmarketingadvice]

I see Rupert Murchoch is complaining about google indexing his content:

In recent months, Murdoch his lieutenants have stepped up their war of words with Google, accusing it of "kleptomania" and acting as a "parasite" for including News Corp content in its Google News pages. But asked why News Corp executives had not chosen to simply remove their websites entirely from Google's search indexes – a simple technical operation – Murdoch said just such a move was on the cards.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/09/murdoch-google

So, basically, he's planning to use nofollow, but it's going to take a long time?

FFS. How time consuming is it to create a few robots.txt files?

I suspect the truth is that he wants his content spidered, but only the first paragraph of each story (and then a sign up form). That way, he gets lots of free traffic to his sales pages.

So, in the Google-News International relationship, who's the real parasite?

Steve

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

The guy is 78, he's worth $4 billion and his company makes upwards of $5 billion annual profit. He needs to stop being such a greedy bugger. I bet the WSJ is still turning over a tidy profit, especially since there's almost a million paid online subscribers regardless of what Google are doing.

I bet the only reason he hasn't turned Myspace into a paid subscription service is because he knows it would destroy the business model and destroy the site.

On another note, I've just been looking up on his wiki page and I'm amazed that his mother is actually still alive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_Murdoch_%28senior%29).

[mattsaw]

WSJ has just strated doing something similar. For certain stories they're displaying full the full content to the Googlebot and visitors from Google news, everyone else has to register.

Personally I think it'll bite them on the ass, if I'm forced to pay or register to view content then I'm going to go elsewhere to read it.

[An Oasis]

I don't think Murchoch"gets" T'intenet...put the walls up pal, there is way too much competition knocking around who would love you to do just that.

[KidsBeeHappy]

Personally I think it'll bite them on the ass, if I'm forced to pay or register to view content then I'm going to go elsewhere to read it.

What if everybody elsewhere is doing the same thing? Where you gonna go then?

The newspaper printed business model is dying on its feet, the advertising model is not the cashcow it used to be, partic on Internet due to adblockers etc.

SO, how do you think they're going to make money, if not paid subscriptions and micropayments?

It's the way that it's all going to go. Good reliable grounded content will be charged for, and the opinionated infactual rants will be free.

One thing that Rupert Murdoch has succinctly shown us again and again and again over the last 30 years is the future of news and media. Ignore his directions at your peril. He hasn't made that amount of money by being "lucky".

[mattsaw]

What if everybody elsewhere is doing the same thing? Where you gonna go then?

Never going to happen. If someone has the opportunity to corner the CPM newspaper advertising market through making their newspaper the only free to view one, then of course they're going to. - Which is exactly why the paid content model will fall down. People don't even like paying for offline newspapers anymore.

SO, how do you think they're going to make money, if not paid subscriptions and micropayments?

They're not going to, at least not in quantities that they've been used to making it.

[sirearl]

The guy is 78, he's worth $4 billion and his company makes upwards of $5 billion annual profit. He needs to stop being such a greedy bugger. .

Oh I doubt its about money,more likely to be his lovely nature showing through.;)

Earl

[KidsBeeHappy]

Never going to happen. If someone has the opportunity to corner the CPM newspaper advertising market through making their newspaper the only free to view one, then of course they're going to. - Which is exactly why the paid content model will fall down. .

I think i'll post a duplicate post to adverturelifes post re Yellow Pages, and say, OK, we'll agree to disagree and revisit again in the future. Although, knowing Rupert Murdoch, i'd say this is probably going to be a 5 year thing rather than something imminently around the corner. After all, Rupert Murdoch is usually the one driving innovation in the news and media sectors, rather than simply following on.

NB. I listened to the MD of Menzies Distribution 2 years ago, talk about the plans that their company were making to ensure survivial post newspapers. The Newspaper industry is going to be one of the most interesting to watch over then next few years, and undoubtably, the way that this industry handles and monetarises the internet will be the benchmark for many other industries.

[adventurelife]

The problem the old lad has is sites like BBC and Aljazeera. I have never read a newspaper site in years and I only but the Sundays because I like the habit of coffee and reading although I already now what I will be reading.

I doubt my kids will do the same. The net is to widespread in the widest possible sense for them to adopt a model that will encourage people like me to pay for news never mind the next generation.

Do I need the news instantly ? Personally no so 1 minute later will be still be to quick for me !

People will pay for quality , but for years now the news has proved not to be quality so why would people pay for it.

Peter

[mattsaw]

I noticed this today,

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/if-the-wsj-com-says-goodbye-to-google-it-will-also-say-goodbye-to-25-percent-of-its-traffic/

So by blocking Google the'll be losing 25%+ of their visitors. I wonder what their advertisers will make of that?

[warrichpk]

try this to find dofollow blogs
inlineseo.com/dofollowdiver/

[KidsBeeHappy]

Where angels fear to tread, Murdoch goes first, and then the rest follow;

http://community.brandrepublic.com/blogs/gordons_republic/archive/2009/11/25/two-consider-following-news-corp-does-google-have-a-problem.aspx

[websitedesign]

Murdoch does not want to be deleted from Google search results... he wants to get paid from the search engines for showing his content. The rest is just PR.

Few days ago it was rumored that Microsoft was possibly going into partnership with Murdoch and getting exclusive distribution rights to his content. Yes that would mean Murdoch may take his site from Google.

Will it work? No.

Reason: 90% of Murdoch content is regurgitated from the AP and is not unique content. If people search for news they don't care where it comes from and it's widely available for free on many alternative sites. Fox demographic is not the highest educated people and they will not be paying for his crap content.

[KidsBeeHappy]

Yet, amazingly, 3m people still buy the Sun everyday. Despite it being crap content, and all information being freely available on the web.

[Andycal]

Yet, amazingly, 3m people still buy the Sun everyday. Despite it being crap content, and all information being freely available on the web.

This is simply because looking at boobs on your iPhone is still socially unacceptable.

Give it time... ;)