Google a 'Tapeworm:' WSJ Exec

Content aggregators like Google—and yes, the humble site you’re reading now—are “parasites or tech tapeworms in the intestines of the Internet,” Robert Thomson, editor of the Wall Street Journal, told fellow News Corp. paper the Australian last week. He warned that the “mistaken perception” that online content should be free “will be a catalyst for action, and the moment is nigh.”

Both the Journal and the Australian are owned by Rupert Murdoch, who last week said newspapers must begin charging for their online content. “Readers have been socialized—wrongly I believe—that much content should be free,” Thomson says. He dismisses Google’s argument that it drives traffic to the content provider, because “the whole Google sensibility is inimical to traditional brand loyalty. Google encourages promiscuity—shamelessly so.” (More Google stories.)