Both Google and Microsoft search engines thrive on news from publishers and news outlets. Seeing this, Australia proposed and passed a law that forces both Google and Facebook to pay for news from publishers.

This law was taken very positively by Microsoft as they agreed to the new Australian terms. However, petty Google saw this as Microsoft undermining their support for publishers.

Google: Fine, We’ll Pay But Don’t Rub It In Microsoft

It sounds like a small fight but Google actually feels hurt by Microsoft’s approach. Actually, Google is accusing Microsoft of trying “to break the way the open web works in an effort to undercut a rival.”

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The initial rivalry with Australia began with Facebook when they tried to fight the new law by blocking users and publishers from posting news content. Soon after, Google came into the picture stating that they would pull their search engine from Australia entirely.

However, Australia was unphased by this and sooner rather than later Google caved in and decided to start paying publishers. As we speaking, the company has written deals with media organizations to pay them for news content.

These include a major three-year agreement with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. This will see Google make “significant payments” to host content from publishers like The Wall Street Journal.

The law was initially designed to target Facebook and Google specifically but Microsoft came in arms open and that did not sit well with Google. The company is basically upset about what it believes is an attack by Microsoft. This is because they believe Microsoft is undermining Google’s efforts to support journalism and publishers.

Microsoft’s Open Arms

In the middle of all of this, Microsoft was very public about its support of Australia’s new law. They are currently teaming up with European publishers to call for online platforms to reach deals to pay news outlets for content.

Google, believes its Google News Initiative, where it tries to collaborate with the news industry, is enough to help news organizations. However, the likes of Microsoft want more than that for publishers.

Google representatives claim that Microsoft is trying to cover up for their earlier security issues with ‘acts of charity. It’s quite the feud and much deeper than we think it to be.

We’ll keep you up to date should anything else happen.