Software vendor Microsoft Corporation, US, has reportedly held talks with media group News Corp. for a possible agreement. The deal would involve paying the latter to remove its news content from Internet search engine Google. News Corp, which owns newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and The Sun, initiated the discussion, which is reportedly at an early stage.
Such an arrangement could set off a fierce debate over the future of online content. A deal on a large scale can create new set of difficulties for users to navigate, and would represent a huge risk for News Corporation or any other news site. According to ComScore, a digital marketing intelligence platform, more than 65 percent of all search queries in the US are made on Google, while Bing handles only 9.9 percent of domestic searches. Removing links from Google would thereby lead to a drastic drop in traffic.
Rupert Murdoch, Chief Executive of News Corp, has been considering charging for access to online content. Other publishers including The New York Times are also looking for ways to charge for news online.
Microsoft, which relaunched its search engine as Bing earlier this year, has been scouting for ways to challenge market leader Google. According to media reports, the company has also approached other big online publishers to convince them to remove their sites from Google's search engine.
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