I Bet Rupe Doesn't Follow It Up

This really has nothin' to do with politics, though it does have to do with Rupert Murdoch.

The billionaire tyrant (his words, not mine) expressed a desire to keep Google from indexing his news sites.

"If they're just search people... They don't suddenly become loyal readers." They get 15-20 headlines and just click on the most interesting. There's no loyalty built from Ask, Google or Microsoft. "

Earlier in the interview, he says he has to charge for his sites because there are "no news websites or blog websites anywhere in the world making serious money." In his opinion, "there's not enough advertising in the world."

The idea is that Murdoch will charge for access to the websites, forcing people to bypass Google et. al. It's a sensible idea except that so far, it hasn't worked. Content providers have attempted it again and again only to find that they simply limit their audience to the point that it's more profitable to open it up with web ads. And while there's practically no money in that, it's more no money than option one.

Google, for its part, is okay with Murdoch's folly.

Google said it was up to individual news organisations to decide whether they wanted their stories listed on Google News, and there were "simple technical standards" that would remove them if they wished.

"News organisations are in complete control over whether and how much of their content appears in search results," it said said in a statement issued in London.

"Publishers put their content on the web because they want it to be found, so very few choose not to include their material in Google News and web search. But if they tell us not to include it, we don't."

It added: "If publishers want their content to be removed from Google News specifically all they need to do it tell us."

So in the great chess game, it's Rupert's move. Like usual.