Open letter to Google: Let Murdoch block searches
Dear Google,
Rupert Murdoch could block Google searches entirely. Great news! Good riddance to bad rubbish.
I would love a search result that by default didn’t include his propaganda empire of faux news. However, Google, since you seem to want to play ball and offer a first-view-free compromise of sorts, Try this out: Add a a couple of new tabs to your search browser, one that filters out subscription-only content and another one that just shows the subscribe stuff.
Because I get tired of sifting thorugh results that include pay-to-view content in the mix. It doesn’t say you have to pay before you click, so it’s kind of false advertising anyway. Add an option so I can just see the non-subscription content and filter out the rest. If I ever want to see what the pay-for stuff has to offer I could simply click over and check it out. That would let online publishers know what people are willing to click and what they aren’t, and also show them what search results look like that don’t include the subscriptions sites.
I have a hunch that the free tab will in fact offer richer, more interesting and unique content, because it will be taking out a number of media organisations throwing money at SEO geeks trying to game their crap content higher on the ranking ladder. Anyway, that would introduce some friendly competition to the mix. Rupert shouldn’t have a problem with that.
The thoughts of worldly men are for ever regulated by a moral law of gravitation which, like the physical one, holds them down to earth. There are no signs in the sun, or in the moon, or in the stars, for their reading. They are like some wise men, who learning to know each planet by its Latin name, have quite forgotten such small heavenly constellations as Charity…and who, looking upward to the spangled sky, see nothing there but the reflection of their own great wisdom and book-learning.
