Rupert Murdoch has made his billions by being a shrewd operator. I thought shrewdness was replaced with insanity when he began talking about 'taking on Google' for stealing content from his newspapers, and stating that he will charge for online content.

Well... Murdoch is definitely still shrewd.

He has started talks with Microsoft about his war with Google. Microsoft has forever been trying to take search engine market share from Google, and has made a little headway with the release of its improved search engine 'Bing'.

While it has not been said what Murdoch and Microsoft are talking about, if they cut some sort of deal where Murdoch's newspapers will only be searchable via Bing, that would be an interesting blow for Google.

Interesting because I would like to see how Google will react.

Although insanity has not replaced his shrewdness, it does not mean Murdoch is not insane...

He seems a bit petulant about the fact that he lacks a certain tool - in this case the talent of 'innovation' - and instead of employing or embracing such tools, he seems intent to keep selling his old, archaic tool in 'newspapers'.

He feels newspapers are sooooo valuable, that people will pay to view them online. Does Murdoch realise how 'news'ed up one can be on the web without what is offered by his empire? Does he realise how divided online news market share is?

Anyway, newspapers that choose to charge for exclusive feature content have my support - monetise what you can.

But newspapers who want to charge for news? They have no support and I predict the beginning of their end!

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