Although Rupert and Micro$oft tried to steal the limelight last week with their joint venture on Foxtel the big story appeared in the NY Times months ago where it wrote
Google and Intel have teamed with Sony to develop a platform called Google TV to bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes.
Strangely the story in the Oz avoided any mention of Google TV however it did disclose the fact that News owns the OZ and 25% of Foxtel. However readers of this blog might suspect the Oz’s motivation since Rupert and Micro$oft are allies in the fight to prevent world domination by the evil Google monster.
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago at 10:21 am. Add a comment
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…
Is this a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend?
When Rupert talked recently about thieves he referred to Google and Microsoft as well as Ask but this seems like a obvious development, one that probably favours Microsoft because they gain more than just the business in search, it also strengthens their ongoing efforts to monopolise the server OS landscape. It’s probably Murdoch’s last card but it fits in well with how the debate has shifted in recent years away from the monopoly that is Microsoft to the the scary Google monster. Of course that debate has in part been driven by opnions and IT departments that are already firmly tied to the Microsoft product.
Particularly worrying is the idea that you might just have to use Bing to find something, just like you have to use Windows to run certain software. Gates and Balmer must be drooling, their shared vision of ruling the world might still come true.
Posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago at 12:53 pm. 1 comment
Julian Lee’s 4 page rant about the evil Google monster might just be one example of how the old media is fighting their decline into insignificance. As he writes “The irony is that the media helped create the monster now giving them nightmares and there is little they can do to stop it.”
Well the old media might have contributed to Google’s growth but significantly any serious analysis of Google’s rise would put most of its success down to “search”. Google focused on search from the beginning because they were smart enough to see where the future was going in the internet age whereas media barons like Rupert had their eyes firmly rooted on the rear vision mirror.
I disagree with Julian’s foray into fear and uncertainty simply because he fails to demonstrate how Google is bad for me. It seems that Google is only bad for the old media world and the real irony is the concern being expressed by the old media about monopoly power. Murdoch and Microsoft arguing against market monopolies? Only when it isn’t their monopoly. Give me a break!
Not long ago I 
