The Microsoft Corporation has had talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation about a tie up which would involved News Corp getting paid to take its news websites off Google Inc.
News Corp, which owns such papers as the Wall Street Journal and the Sun, started the discussion, which were at an early stage.
Rupert Murdoch has said he wants to make people pay for access to his news websites. Other publishers including the New York Times are also searching for ways to charge for news online, convinced that they must not give news through search engines such as Google and Yahoo Inc.
Microsoft has also talked with other online publishers about removing their sites from Google, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the development.
"This is all about Microsoft hurting Google's margins," the FT quoted a website publisher who had been approached by Microsoft.
Microsoft, which relaunched its search engine as Bing this year, has been looking for ways to challenge market leader Google.
Earlier this year it signed a 10-year global web search partnership with Yahoo, a deal that UK and European anti-trust regulators are evaluating. Source: Reuters
Although recently it was reported Rupert Murdoch had given up on the idea that we pay to view his websites it appears he's quietly determined. If he manages to achieve his aims will people pay or go elsewhere?
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