Not long ago I linked to Jason Clacanis’s video where he talked about the potential for News Corp to play off Bing against Google and today the Financial Times has another more concrete looking story which suggests that the Microsoft News marriage is all but done and dusted. News brings a fat dowry of rich media and Microsoft brings Bing and a huge desire to rule the known universe. Should be a beautiful marriage which is sure to beget some truly bastardised progeny.
Normally on the occasion of the happy nuptials one is supposed to wish the newlyweds all sorts of good tidings so in the spirit of the occasion I guess I can say that if ever a couple were made for each other, it is News.corpse and the Borg. I’m guess we will just have to wait for the Windows only version of the newspaper we have to have.
This could become a very interesting little threesome if Google decides to start stitching up some content but unfortunately I think it does herald the beginning of the end of the “free” net. Sure plenty of free stuff will remain but the market for so-called “rich media content” on the internet has just got serious.
UPDATE!
Just for good measure I have decided to disallow the Bing bot from my site until Microsoft decides to offer me money, it seems only fair and reasonable. I mean if the stuff on Murdoch’s sites is worth money…
FT.com / Media – Microsoft and News Corp eye web pact.
[...] This post was Twitted by qednet [...]
[...] Fascinating? New? what planet is Bernard on? Microsoft and News Corp (part owners of Foxtel along with Telstra and a few others) are monopolists pure and simple, in Microsoft’s case it’s been proven in the US courts and is demonstrated daily by the 90% + of computer users who sustain the Microsoft monopoly. Less than a year ago when Murdoch started to firm up his battle lines with Google, News Corp and Microsoft announce this little pact. [...]
[...] However readers of this blog might suspect the Oz’s motivation since Rupert and Micro$oft are allies in the fight to prevent world domination by the evil Google [...]