Microsoft tells news moguls – you’re on your own

More than a little bit of a fuss was raised not long ago when word came that Microsoft was trying to cozy up to news industry titans like News Corp suggesting that they might consider encouraging them to yank their content out of Google and go with Bing in exchange for some sort of financial arrangement.

Even though there were no official statements confirming or denying the common consensus from around the blogosphere is that this would be an incredibly stupid move on Microsoft’s part.

Well it seems that maybe Microsoft might have been listening, or had no plans in that direction in the first place, as word comes out today courtesy of The Financial Times that top search executives at Microsoft have all but dismissed the idea.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s senior vice-president for online services, refused to comment directly on talks with News Corp, but said that Bing was not looking to get a leg-up on Google by securing preferential access to information.

“That’s not at all a focus for us,” he said, adding: “We generally are not focused on getting non-Google content.”

He also said that keeping information off Google was “not the thing that would be a benefit to us in the long run”.

Source:Financial Times

I for one sure hope they stick with this decision.