[easyfrag]

Exactly. I don't think Murdoch is actually upset that Google drives people to his sites, what bugs him is that they go to Google first.

When you read a story in a newspaper, you almost automatically consume other content in that paper, including ads. Why pick up another paper to read more news when it's already in your hands? To a lesser extent the same is true for cable news, you watch a brief segment and you are bombarded with "coming up next" teasers and flashy graphics, pretty anchors, etc., all designed to keep you on that channel (watching ads).

The web is way less sticky than even television, sure you could flip channels but you lose context, and you might have to keep flipping to find something interesting, broadcast is a push medium. Contrast this with the web page: what is the easiest thing to do after reading the linked story? Search around the new site (that you may not be familiar with) or hit the back button and resume what you were doing: Pulling down stories you want to read, instead of waiting to see if something interesting comes up.

I think Murdoch gets the power of the aggregator, I don't think he understands that he has always pushed content to consumers. (Yes a lot of work goes into creating a brand that attracts these consumers to the paper/network but once they are there they have content pushed to them.) The web is a pull medium.

Billions were spent on the "portal wars" of the 90's, and everyone who participated lost to a page with a text box and 2 buttons.