Murdoch May Block Google Searches Entirely From His Newspaper Sites

Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google's search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online.

In an interview with Sky News Australia, the mogul said that newspapers in his media empire -- including the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal -- would consider blocking Google entirely once they had enacted plans to charge people for reading their stories on the web.

Read the whole story: Guardian

Comments

[kunzler]

This is great news! I hate it when I do a news search and some propaganda story from Fox pops up.

[Ezra Riner]

Oh please do it Rupert. Please! Block Google entirely. Shut 79% of the web's eyes to your bullshit. That'll show 'em! No, really. Do it. We'll all thank you.

[S1m0n]

I guess the best thing for google to do is to wish Murdoch well. And hey, if that's what he wants, maybe giving him a head start by cutting him off now wouldn't hurt.

[TinaGirlla]

Great idea - I think Google should come up with a way I can avoid his content now.

[Raster]

Great news! Cut down on garbage I don't want to see returned in my searches.

[Karen Lotter]

It must be hard for old tycoons like this to recognize that the world has changed. The power lies with the searchers. People like him don't have much power on the www.

[Trubulmaker]

Murdoch is a scoundrel. My first suspicion about this proposal was that he wants to make it harder to fact-check the claims his publications print, and needs an excuse to conceal his real motives.

[Epiphany2b]

And he thinks Google is the only search engine available? I used Google only once and refused to use it again!! Is he going to threaten all of them?

[Shwazy]

The basic premise of Murdoch's complaint is a lie.

ANYBODY can block google, without ever placing a phone call.

http://nsit.uchicago.edu/services/googlesearch/#exluding

Read and learn. The man is absolutely complaining just to complain. If he had researched the issue AT ALL, he would realize there is no basis for complaint. Just block google if you want to make your content irrellevant. What an incredible jerk.

[Shwazy]

So, Murdoch alleges that Google is essentially "stealing" his content. Google can't do that, because it is VERY easy to block google's indexing service.

To block an individual page:


To block an entire site, insert the following into a file named "robots.txt" at the root level of the site:
User-agent: * Disallow: /

So apparently, Murdoch, with billions at his disposal, can't be bothered to find out what millions of nerds know is incredibly simple to do? How incredibly dishonest.

[rf-hawaii]

It's not that Google can't scan your material if you mark it properly. It's that they choose not to.

[Paw1]

Murdoch is certainly within his rights to insist that Google doesn't carry stories from his news organizations. Google is also within their rights to block whatever they want to from their search index. What Murdoch fails to realize is that the paywall only works when the commodity being sold isn't readily available elsewhere. The Wall Street Journal is the primary financial news source in America. He can, and does, make a paywall work there.

With the amount of general news available 24/7 from myriad sources, many of which consumers already pay for (cable sub fees, broadband fees), erecting a general news paywall will be one of his biggest mistakes.

[GhostNyc]

Google should just BLOCK Murdoch and his related enterprises for 7 days. Lets see if Murdoch changes his tune then.

[slipthalo]

Removal of his sites will only make Google searches much more credible. He's shooting himself in the foot and desn't even know it.

[Bigidea]

Please Please, Please. We beg of you. Do it now.
Fine example of Greed and megalomania culminating in terminal stupidity.

[Bouddicca]

I would LOVE to NOT see his garbage show up in my searches..
I keep looking in my preferences to see if i can get his crud removed from my sight..

Can this be done? Oh please tell me it can be done. I keep wanting to punch my computer in the face when i see things that say "FOXnews" ..

Rupe..i think your idea is great!! please please charge for people to see your cah cah machine.

[MossyOak]

The Great Murdoch has spoken!... and the quicker he gets his New World Order Empire off cyberspace, the better.

[VTya]

Shh! don't tell him ... it will mean less traffic to his site and ..... less people will be brainwashed by the lies and propaganda he is parading as "news".