Microsoft and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp are considering a deal that would lead to the de-indexing of News Corp’s articles from Google (but still showing them on Bing) and giving newspapers a boost as the otherwise exclusive outlet. In short – protectionism.
“The biggest beneficiary of the tussle could be the newspaper industry, which has yet to construct a reliable online business model that adequately replaces declining print and advertising revenues.” Full article here – http://bit.ly/5YUlSD
I’ll delay my opinion on how desperate all this makes the news media seem, and move on to what it means to your business, which depends on Google and others for both organic and paid search, performed in an honest manner.
By the time my morning cup of coffee is half done, I’ve scanned the headlines and read several of the articles on various websites. And, in truth, I rarely consider where the articles are coming from, who paid the reporter to write them, or how much it costs the news organizations to publish them in newspapers which I likely won’t buy. If news on the Internet has become an entitlement, I’m guilty of being one of those who feels entitled.
Google’s major revenue stream, however, does not come from news. It comes from folks typing in search terms, viewing the results, and then clicking on some of the links for which businesses have paid to put there. This activity and Google’s successful algorithm and continued management of their standards is why they now enjoy a 70% share of all searched words among the five or so search options. One reason some of us come to Google is to get news. But it’s certainly not the main reason.
So when considering how such a large change to Google affects you, one must think through a few scenarios which could transpire should Murdoch achieve the news blackout against Google.
1. They block Google from distributing their news and others follow.
Result: Those who’ve been getting their news for free will suddenly have to go elsewhere to seek it. They’ll still use their embedded search bar to seek out the other things they need in life.
Result for Your Site: Not much change at all. The embedded search tool on my browser is much like everyone else’s – it says Google on it and I rarely change it to do a search on another engine. So any optimization you’re doing now will likely still be skewed to please the Google criteria.
2. They block Google AND put the Bing search bar on every news article.
Result: This will inevitably increase usage of Bing.
Result for Your Site: You’ll have to make sure your site is optimized for Bing. With Google owning 70% of search, most SEO companies have focused primarily on pleasing the Google algorithm. Bing becoming more preferred could lead to changes in your options to compete in search (in my opinion).
If it succeeds, it changes things for you
Bing will make things different, potentially in a bad way, for small and medium businesses. Here’s just one example – Unlike its competitors, Bing doesn’t simply return links to web sites, instead it crawls listings at review services such as CitySearch and Yelp.com, both of whom are more than willing to cooperate with Microsoft. So suddenly it’s a game of ’who you know’ vs. how relevant your content is.
This is concerning to me for many reasons. At first, Bill Gates ignored search altogether. Then, when he decided Yahoo and others could eat his lunch, he got aggressive. But rather than build a better app, he attempted to acquire. And now they seem hell-bent on getting the job done. My main concern is that Bing is not a better app, it’s simply a more aggressive way to peddle influence. I’d prefer that anything that threatens Google be a better way to present relevant, ranked content to the end viewer. With Microsoft’s method, it will likely be a dollar game and this ultimately hurts small and medium sized businesses.
And now, if I may, some opinion –
Wall Street Journal Chief Robert Thomson says ‘Google devalues everything it touches.’
His and other entrenched companies are ignoring the advantages of services like Google which led to a democratization of accessibility beyond elite news organizations (and huge retail websites). This opening up of access, which allows relevant content to rise to the top, means bloggers are now becoming news outlets, and small and medium retailers are suddenly able to compete with huge companies and their team of content creators simple because the smaller companies are more nimble and more creative.
This is really at the heart of the issue. All protectionism is an attempt to save sales of a product that may actually be inferior to others. The losers in this case will be small and medium businesses, and the wider public who searches the Internet.
Take the case of the automobile industry. The Japanese gave the U.S. automakers a real wakeup call. Luckily they are waking up, but it took looser trade laws to give Americans a taste of how long a Honda engine could last; and this forced American automakers to build better cars.
This issue directly affects your small to medium sized business and your ability to compete
If these companies can partner with Microsoft, so can others. Large retail chains could be enticed by Microsoft to offer their services for sale only via search on Bing. Imagine the threat Microsoft could wield over a large computer retailer, for instance. Certain other categories could be next. Watch the TV every now and then to get an idea how much money Microsoft is spending on Bing commercials; it’s staggering. More than $90 Million to produce the spots according to AppScout. That’s just the cost to film and edit the commercials. Kacey Stapleton says, “It’s been widely reported that Microsoft put about a quarter of their entire earnings from 2008 into the advertising budget for Bing.”
That, more than anything else, should be a measure of how serious this is all about to get. And make no mistake, it will affect your business. Ion Leap, the blog writer resource, will continue to keep you up to date on this issue.
