signor_john - 4:39 am on Nov 13, 2009 (gmt 0)

I already posted in this thread and I am happy to reiterate again my firm belief that *the only* way for news publishers to pressure Google is to collectively (or individually, although that's less likely to succeed) launch another news aggregator.

I wonder if a "collective" launch of a news aggregator by a cabal of news organizations (with the intent of quashing competition from Google and other search engines) mightn't run afoul of antitrust laws?

If Rupert Murdoch wanted to launch a house-brand aggregator site for his own properties, that would be a different story, but he'd need a way to attract readers. In the U.S., he might be able to create a kind of "Fox News" aggregator that would appeal to a certain segment of the political spectrum (i.e., the kind of people who get steamed whenever they see New York Times or Washington Post stories on Google News), but his news empire is global--and so is the Web.