Or at least it could be.
So remember Rupert Murdoch’s insistence that Google pay him for access to News Corp’s on-line content? Remember the rumor that Murdoch’s News Corp would do a deal with Microsoft Bing to have only that search engine “see” his stuff? Here comes the next bomb. And while it looks like pretty much nothing at the moment, get ready for the explosion.
Working with The New York Times and The Washington Post, Google is now testing Living Stories. At the moment there’s really nothing there to get excited about, and honestly I’m not sure of the number of people who will ever care about a string of stories about one topic (unless that topic is Tiger Wood’s extramarital activities, of course). But Google Living Stories matters, because it points to real collaboration between Google and the newspapers that both need Google to keep them alive and hate Google for making their content ubiquitous.
And that’s the business change lesson of the day: sometimes baby steps add up to something, and having Google and two of his chief competitors talking and working together will force Mr. Murdoch’s hand. The movement itself is the reward here, and search engines, newspapers, and consumers will all win.
What are you doing to change your business?
