technoballs » news corp http://technoballs.com technology | balls Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:39:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Microsoft and News Corp: The Enemy Of My Enemy? http://technoballs.com/microsoft-and-news-corp-the-enemy-of-my-enemy http://technoballs.com/microsoft-and-news-corp-the-enemy-of-my-enemy#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:38:26 +0000 the ballmaster http://technoballs.com/?p=815

The Financial Times reported today that Microsoft is offering to pay News Corp to remove its content from Google’s search engine. This has become Microsoft’s preferred marketing approach: pay people to use your stuff… or, in this case, to not use someone else’s. We saw it with Bing Shopping’s double cashback earlier this [...]]]> Steve Ballmer

The Financial Times reported today that Microsoft is offering to pay News Corp to remove its content from Google’s search engine. This has become Microsoft’s preferred marketing approach: pay people to use your stuff… or, in this case, to not use someone else’s. We saw it with Bing Shopping’s double cashback earlier this year, and we’re seeing it again now.

That’s what a $25 billion war chest lets you do.

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, meanwhile, has been taking his own hard line against Google, stating that he would use legal methods to stop Google from “stealing stories” from News Corp properties such as The Wall Street Journal. The puzzling thing with this approach is that no one is forcing publishers to have their content indexed by Google. It’s really quite simple: put a robots.txt file on your site, and– bam! –Google will no longer index your content.

Of course, you’d also be committing digital seppuku in the process, as Google probably drives the majority of your traffic, but hey.

via FT.com / Media – Microsoft and News Corp eye web pact.

]]> http://technoballs.com/microsoft-and-news-corp-the-enemy-of-my-enemy/feed 0 SHOCKER: News Corp-Funded Study Concludes That MySpace is Safe After All http://technoballs.com/shocker-news-corp-funded-study-concludes-that-myspace-is-safe-after-all http://technoballs.com/shocker-news-corp-funded-study-concludes-that-myspace-is-safe-after-all#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:49:46 +0000 the ballmaster http://technoballs.com/?p=532 More Doctors Smoke Camels

Nicole offers a disconcerting lack of skepticism in this piece, which claims that MySpace is safe for children, based upon the results of a News Corp-funded study:

A National School Boards Association (NSBA) study, which was funded in party by Microsoft, News Corp. and Verizon, have concluded that social networking sites like MySpace and Bebo are far more harmless than most parents (and the government) currently think.

Lest we forget, News Corp owns MySpace. If this kind of industry-funded report reminds you of the  safety reports regularly conducted by the tobacco lobby into the dangers of smoking, it’s with good reason.

It’s not that MySpace may not be safe for kids– it very well may be. It’s just that such a conclusion should be taken with a grain of salt when it comes from News Corp.

via MySpace is Safe After All.

]]> http://technoballs.com/shocker-news-corp-funded-study-concludes-that-myspace-is-safe-after-all/feed 0 All Your Userbase Are Belong to Us http://technoballs.com/all-your-userbase-are-belong-to-us http://technoballs.com/all-your-userbase-are-belong-to-us#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:17:58 +0000 the ballmaster http://technoballs.com/?p=64 An interesting development in the small but growing field of eBooks: who owns the relationship between content and customer? Amazon clearly believes it should do so, following in the model of Apple’s iPod. Newspaper tycoon and Wall Street Journal owner Rupert Murdoch feels otherwise:

“We will not be ceding our content rights to the fine people [...]]]> An interesting development in the small but growing field of eBooks: who owns the relationship between content and customer? Amazon clearly believes it should do so, following in the model of Apple’s iPod. Newspaper tycoon and Wall Street Journal owner Rupert Murdoch feels otherwise:

“We will not be ceding our content rights to the fine people who created the Kindle. We will control the prices for our content and we will control our relationships with our customers. Any device maker or website which doesn’t meet these basic criteria on content will not be doing business long-term with News Corporation.”

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch

Which model will prevail? Or will publications with hefty clout (like the Journal) own the relationship while the little guys cede control to the device manufacturers?

via Murdoch: Why News Corp. Isn’t BFF With Amazon | paidContent .

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