sullen - 1:08 pm on Nov 24, 2009 (gmt 0)

In a thread titled "Will Microsoft pay publishers to boycott Google news?" on the Microsoft Corporate Forum, I asked: Is this ethical? Is it even legal? To me, it sounds like Budweiser going into a bar and telling the owner, "We'll pay you not to serve Miller." (As opposed to "We'll pay you to serve Bud in addition to Miller.")

Pubcos in the UK do exactly this all the time, although they don't pay landlords, they just make them sign draconian contracts. Also as far as I know even in the US, drinks companies often have "exclusivity" deals with various event companies.

I think this would be good for competition. If Google were paying sites to delist from other engines, that would be market abuse since they are the leading player (as Intel were the leading player in their market). But for a smaller engine to do it - that's fine. In the unlikely event that Bing goes on to become the market leader, these deals will need to be revised, but for now, I don't see how else Google's near-monopoly can be broken. And breaking up a near-monopoly is a good thing, whatever you think of Microsoft.

edit: another thing: the fact that there may be no relevant ads for these topics is kind of beside the point. A deal like this would get more people into the habit of using Bing, and would benefit Microsft, though maybe not directly.