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Google Signs $900m MySpace Deal 213

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the road-to-world-domination dept.
deadmantyping writes "Google has signed a $900m deal with Fox to provide search capabilities for Fox sites, the most noteworthy of which is MySpace. This deal does not include FoxSports.com, which already has a deal with MSN. Google claims that 'MySpace was an important site to be involved with given its rapid popularity growth.' Google also signed a deal with MTV earlier in the week."
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Google Signs $900m MySpace Deal More

Google Signs $900m MySpace Deal

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  • I just hate it when... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07, 2006 @10:35PM (#15863620)
    Rupert Murdoch ($500M for myspace.com) gets to tug on his suspenders and say, "Guess I'm not so dumb after all."

    • Rupert Murdoch ($500M for myspace.com) gets to tug on his suspenders and say, "Guess I'm not so dumb after all."

      Heh. Nobody should ever accuse him (or his buddy W, for that matter) of being dumb. It gives too much benefit of the doubt.

      Getting serious for a second, though, it's good to see that MySpace is finally doing something about their search capability. You can put just about anything into their current search engine, and go through the results it returns with a fine-toothed comb and not find

    • ...and REAL media has to take donations; http://www.whiterosesociety.org/ [whiterosesociety.org]

    • Although he saw the long-term potential in it and he should be commended for the timing in jumping on it before someone beat him to it,
      seeing him on the cover of Wired (July '6) makes it appear as though it was his idea, his funding, his efforts, etc.

      Sure, MySpace could|would a crash & burn if someone didn't jump in at an appropriate moment, and it's unkonwn how closely he beat out someone else to grab the real estate, but it'll remain to be seen how he adds this little jewel to his crown. i.e., wh
  • You know something is truly messed up when MySpace is valued anywhere near a billion dollars.
    • I think it's pretty interesting actually. According to sone randomly edited, freely available, possibly erroneous information:

      "[AOL] had at one time a customer base that reached over 30 million subscribers" - from aol wikipedia page

      "MySpace currently reports just over 99 million members, with 500,000 new members each week." - from myspace wikipedia page

      Two different services that can be used relatively easily to meet people, or chat, or for show and tell or whatever. If you've ever logged into aol since...
      • "MySpace currently reports just over 99 million members, with 500,000 new members each week." - from myspace wikipedia page

        That just means 5% make a new profile each week, and they stop counting when a profile is erased for 5 weeks.

        Kids do that, try out new identities all the time, change names, interests, etc. It's 100% normal teen behaivior.

        It's great for inflating your numbers if you're a website that hosts them tho :)

  • Myspace taking over...... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by matts-reign ( 824586 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @10:40PM (#15863636) Homepage
    I don't see the attraction of myspace.

    It seems like everybody is using the website now. I can understand that people want to host their own content.

    Why then, are movies using myspace? Talladega nights advertises its offical url as http://myspace.com/rickybobby [myspace.com]. Why? Why not just have a regular website? Or is there something i'm missing?
    • Is that URL from the trailer? Googling "talladega nights" gets me to this Sony Pictures page [sonypictures.com], with no MySpace hits in the first few pages of results.

      • Re:Myspace taking over...... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Ruff_ilb ( 769396 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @11:09PM (#15863747) Homepage
        Regardless, many films are doing this... it's really a moot point as to whether or not this particular film does it.

        The bottom line is that a myspace link is familiar to lots of people, easy to access, easy to create, and plays into the social networking scheme that myspace yields. If someone can add "Ricky Bobby" to their myspace friends account, or whatever (I don't use myspace, so I don't know exactly how it works), but for a very small amount of effort, and likely no funding (they can rehash their own promotional materials) they can reach a number of people, and then (and this is where MySpace has another significant advantage) reach the people those people have friended on myspace, because the friends will see the user's like for the movie. Thus, for almost nothing, the marketers can reach people that wouldn't normally access the site.

        • Re:Myspace taking over...... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by shawb ( 16347 ) on Tuesday August 08, 2006 @12:13AM (#15863975)
          And probably more importantly than just reaching people, the marketers can find what interests the people they reach have. Looking into it a bit can show that some unexpected demographic might be into the movie/band/whatever. Or they might find larger interest in certain geographic regions than expected... in theory this could allow companies to bring products (including movies and art) to people that actually want them. This is probably more important for something like a band planning out a tour schedule, but larger companies can use it to concentrate their marketing as well.
        • I think you are missing the point. When you put it inside myspace, it subconsously feels like it is still *in* that familiar space. The concepts and the layout are easy to digest, and you don't feel like you ever left your own backyard, so, you're (you being a myspace user) more likely to be willing to go, and you're more likely to stay.

          Or maybe its just Rupert flexing his muscle.
        • Good insight. In other words, it's the ultimate in viral marketing. I work for a marketing agency (though I'm not in marketing myself) and "viral" is what everybody wets themselves over in this business. If you can get word-of-mouth to spread, it's basically free advertising. If your ad is good enough that people want to see it, interact with it, and be a part of it, then you spend less time and money taking your message to consumers -- they come to you. MySpace was practically made for this; it's an e

    • Re:Myspace taking over...... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by YrWrstNtmr ( 564987 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @10:48PM (#15863670)
      I don't see the attraction of myspace.

      You're evidently not 14.
      • Don't tell her that.

      • Here's another age fact|factor for you, derived from separate; i.e. independent, sources across a number of years.

        1. It's been known for a long time that the tobacco industry knows if they don't get you by the time you're nineteen, you're likely to never be a smoker, although I don't know if that applies for social smoking (my term for those who smoke when they are social drinkers; i.e., the ony time they smoke is when they're out for a few drinks with their friends.

        2. Several years ago, and before the
    • Why? Why not just have a regular website? They probably don't know how to make one.
    • Even things with official websites are often just pointers to a myspace page these days. This is especially common with bands.

      "Offical website of . Click here now to hear them on MySpace.com"

      The vanity sites irritate me more though, since you have a site, have a host, have nothign to say, but create a myspace page to do everythign you always could anyway. Ugh!

    • Why then, are movies using myspace? Talladega nights advertises its offical url as http://myspace.com/rickybobby [myspace.com]. Why? Why not just have a regular website? Or is there something i'm missing?

      One word: Moo.

    • to post a dupe (like thats not been done before)
      a copy and paste from one of my old posts
      #rant
      okay okay......
      for the longest time nerds were outcasted when the net first started.
      myspace is a way for the rest of the non-tech-savvy people to catch up.
      when geocities.com first started in the mid-90's, every tech/geek/nerd/etc had a webpage that looked not as high quality but just and loud and annoying as the my space profiles these "teens" create.
      the world has caught up, and now they are making webpages

    • Re:Myspace taking over...... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by apflwr3 ( 974301 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @11:44PM (#15863893)
      Why then, are movies using myspace? Talladega nights advertises its offical url as http://myspace.com/rickybobby [myspace.com] [myspace.com]. Why? Why not just have a regular website? Or is there something i'm missing?

      For one thing it's potentially a marketing goldmine.

      "Rickybobby" has 60,000 "friends." It could be 600,000 in a couple of months. Almost all of these "friends" are in the coveted teens-and-twenties demographic. The fact that they are willing to be friends with a movie means they're susceptible to advertising. They will be getting messages and emails and "friend invites" from upcoming movies and who-knows-what-else from Sony Pictures for a long time to come.

      Why do you think Myspace is worth so much to Fox? It's a database of millions of teenagers who proudly list their interests and hobbies.

      • Why do you think Myspace is worth so much to Fox? It's a database of millions of teenagers who proudly list their interests and hobbies.

        Yup, like TV, people are the content and advertisers the customer. It's just a bit more clear on the web where people actually are the content.
    • The value of marketing on MySpace is phenomenally huger and more measurable than a normal "website", just due to the fact that MySpace has the whole photo-oriented "friends" concept. Under this concept marketers get a MUCH better idea of who's interested in your movie or product or whatever due to the fact that the whole thing is "Opt-In". This is WAY different from just advertising a URL, putting banner-type-ads on other sites and/or doing e-mail/spam campaigns. These more traditional forms of Internet
    • I don't see the attraction of myspace.

      It seems like everybody is using the website now.

      You just cracked the code without even knowing! Honestly, I must say that I'm a little surprised that /. in general seems to harbor so much animosity towards MySpace. If you want user content, then it should come as no surprise that lots of it is going to suck. Personally, I use it to keep in touch with friends, find old friends from school, and basically as an email system for my friends who use it (and that's just
    • I don't see the attraction of myspace.


      IMO it's just the "flavor of the week" like tripod, geocities, angelfire, yada yada yada were at one time. Soon enough the SNR on myspace will be nothing but lifted clip art and blinking text. Oh wait ...

    • It's almost becoming like if you're not on myspace then you don't exist or there's something seriously wrong with you. I meet people in real life, in pubs and elsewhere, and I get asked about my myspace! Not my email or phone number, no, my myspace! Damn, and I avoided myspace like the plague all these years. Sounds like I need to quickly assemble a vain, pretentious-looking "profile" of me with "cool" pictures (I can't stomach the idea!) and some 600 cool "friends".
      • I've have met this kind of situation once, but about linkedin, not myspace.

        In any case, my answer to anyone asking why I don't have a myspace page is simply "I have better things to do with my time".

        If anyone goes looking for me on myspace, they really should get shot. It is simply too easy to look for me (real name, of course) on google. Or to use my personal e-mail address, which never changed since 1998.

        Really, why should I care about myspace ? I REALLy have better things to do with my time.
    • I have been using myspace for about 2 years now and have thought over the past year that Google should really find a way to get involved with Myspace for the following reasons:

      1. Myspace has a pig slow way of accessing vast amounts of data, google could help
      2. one word: blogging
      3. piss poor loss of advertising opportunity
      4. Google wants to manage the worlds data... myspace is a significant repository of useful data

      I personally have thought that Myspace has been missing the boat when it comes to advertising
    • Remember how, a few years back, advertisers were giving out URLs and AOL keywords?

      Pretty much the same thing - if you find a large clustering of LCD users, you have to translate from the real internet into their world.

  • Excellent! (Score:5, Funny)

    by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @10:40PM (#15863639)
    Vapid, self-obsessed, score-keeping emo-inanities will now be even easier to find! And that's just the garage bands.

    Wait... did you feel that? A great disturbance in the workforce, like millions of voices crying out... like it just became easier than ever for HR departments around the world to sift through that stack of resumes.

    • Re:Excellent! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) *

      Vapid, self-obsessed, score-keeping emo-inanities will now be even easier to find! And that's just the garage bands.

      C'mon. This is why eBay is so successful. Not because they have the best approach or the best business model, hell from what I've seen they're a mindless bunch of jerks who change their site arbitrarily in not necessarily good ways. Even the best practices seem to evade them for years.

      It's simply where the herd is. And when the herd is all in one spot, very few feel compelled, until si

      • See also: slashdot (but I didn't need to point out the obvious now, did I)
        • Perhaps I'm missing your inherent irony, but depending on who you talk to slashdot jumped the shark a half decade ago.

          As I see it, there are a few camps left. Feel free to suggest others if I've missed them:

          The new: Hey, they're new. Can't blame them for that that.
          The old: Well, some people believe that there was a golden age of slashdot, and can't quite bring themselves to believe it's over, so they keep coming back, just in case.
          The curmudgeons: Ok, so others might believe that slashdot never had any rede

          • Re:Excellent! (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Bronster ( 13157 ) <slashdot@brong.net> on Tuesday August 08, 2006 @01:25AM (#15864183) Homepage
            Slashdot falls into the "good enough not to be totally worthless, and nothing else is so significantly better that it's worth switching" bracket. Plus, everyone else[tm] is here.

            I think it's largely the "there's enough going on to keep me distracted for an entire workday" factor that makes slashdot so... um... slashdotty.

            Yeah, something like that.

    • Re:Excellent! (Score:5, Funny)

      by andrewman327 ( 635952 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @11:20PM (#15863799) Homepage Journal
      it just became easier than ever for HR departments around the world to sift through that stack of resumes.

      Agreed. Just look at this cover my HR department got the other day! (Hey, they're using it for movies, and I think that most of its individual users are dumb enough to do this.)


      drear employr,
      if u want 2 see my resume', chec out my MySpace. ignore the pix of me (hehe, i was so drunk) and the awesome muzic (i wuz 9 when Maroon 5 relesed that song) and clic on the "CLICK ME" link.

    • Wait... did you feel that? A great disturbance in the workforce, like millions of voices crying out... like it just became easier than ever for HR departments around the world to sift through that stack of resumes.
      Or perhaps the millions of voices crying out are that of people with burning eyeballs from viewing some of the cluttered layouts, clashing loud colours and the multitude animated gifs that appear on 99% of all myspace pages. ;-)

  • Google paid Fox? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by emjoi_gently ( 812227 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @10:41PM (#15863643)
    Google paid Fox nearly a BILLION dollars to provide Fox with a Search Engine? Isn't that kind of backwards?

  • It's not a Myspace.com deal... (Score:3, Informative)

    by IANAAC ( 692242 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @10:42PM (#15863645)
    It's a News Corp deal.

    It would be nice if the headline were less... sensationalist.

  • Taking food from my plate (Score:3, Funny)

    by Weaselmancer ( 533834 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @10:49PM (#15863673)

    Throwing chairs, etc. You know the drill.

  • Question (Score:4, Funny)

    by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @10:49PM (#15863675) Homepage Journal
    How can you index a site where 90% of the words are one or 2 meaningless letters?

    • Re:Question (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Tokin84 ( 919029 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @11:19PM (#15863790)
      Forget letters... what about numbers replacing whole words! it hurts my brain even thinking about it!

      Oh, and lets see, from a business stand point, this is probably a good move my Google. granted, $900M is a ton of money, but with myspace generating over 27.4 billion page views per month (article here [techcrunch.com]), that's a huge income stream for Google. Even if only 1% of those people even click on a link, which is probably an underestimate, thats 274 million ad clicks per month. At a minimum of $0.01/click, that's $2.74M. Also, don't forget that Google does Cost Per Impressions, or per 1000 ad views. Lets assume you use minimums, as I have throughout this post, and you will see that Google generates another $6.85M/ad displayed. Since Google usually puts up about 5 ads per search, you can assume that they are making $34.25M/month at a minimum. Total, they have a revenue of appoximately $37M/month, all at minimums. Now, this doesn't take into account the fact that most advertisers pay more than the minimums since Google uses cost competitive advertising. However, at minimums, it only takes Google a little over 24 months to recover their costs and start making money. Seems pretty smart to me!

      Then again, what do I know!
      • You have to take into account how popular MySpace will be in a year or two? Will they still be number one. I would not bet yes, but google seems to be.

        Of course I am willing to admit that, at this point, they probably know a little bit more about the business than I do!
    • dats y dey ned ggl 2 do it!!!!!!!!
    • How can you index a site where 90% of the words are one or 2 meaningless letters?

      You mean you've never used 'Google Translate"? Apparently this represents a kind of new acid-test for them, an attempt to make a language we'll call "Teenglish" searchable in plain English.


      More seriously, I wonder why Google would pay for this at all. Others have mentioned the value of advertising, but that only happens if people do a search rather than go directly to their target page. And Google doesn't need to do an
  • Before it happens I just want you people to know, myspace is cool, so cool in fact George Bush and Dick Cheney have one to boost their approval rating. http://www.current.tv/pods/supernews/PD03297 [current.tv] Wait.. maybe it isn't so cool at all. I swear if I hear the name K-Fed one more time -_-.
  • Maybe I'll be the first to say it, but Fox's buyout of myspace, which seemed astronomically high at the time, has now made all of its money back.


  • better ways (Score:5, Funny)

    by spykemail ( 983593 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @10:58PM (#15863711) Homepage
    I can think of a lot of better ways to blow $900 million dollars, for example, on vodka and hookers.

  • So many jokes, so little time (Score:3, Funny)

    by CrazyJim1 ( 809850 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @11:00PM (#15863713) Journal
    Myspace + Google + MTV = Pimp my Site

  • Clarification :: Google paid, not was paid (Score:5, Informative)

    by LordOfTheNoobs ( 949080 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @11:02PM (#15863718) Homepage
    "Under the terms of the agreement, Google will be obligated to make guaranteed minimum revenue share payments to Fox Interactive Media of $900 million based on Fox achieving certain traffic and other commitments"

    Requote from the Register [theregister.co.uk] article pertaining.

    Google paid News Corp to be the sole advertiser. Not News Corp paid Google to provide search.

    Thank you, that is all...

  • improving myspace (Score:2, Interesting)

    by steve426f ( 746013 )
    damn, only search capabilities. I was hoping that Google had bought myspace so that the interface would actually be decent and not allow people to simultaneously play fifty mp3's and movies.

  • Myspace doesn't HAVE a search function (Score:3, Insightful)

    by British ( 51765 ) <british1500@gmail.com> on Monday August 07, 2006 @11:13PM (#15863769) Homepage Journal
    ...to begin with.

    Go to "myspace groups". Try doing a search for anything. The result set is always ALL the groups, thus making it useless.

    Heck, the 'add to favorites' has bad strings in it(look at the confirmation page). Apparently someone doesn't know how to spell favorite.

    Hey myspace, how about signing a captcha deal to stop the spammer bots?
  • First, we hear about accessibility [slashdot.org]. Then, we get protection [slashdot.org].

    And then, this. MySpace is the most inaccessible, untrustworthy, badly coded website made worse by the piles of pasted code by pre-teen posers onto their profile to add 7 streaming videos, 20 animated cursor trails, and a background image that matches perfectly with the text of the entire page.

    What strange bedfellows....

  • "I'm Feeling Lucky" (Score:4, Funny)

    by Hamster Lover ( 558288 ) * on Monday August 07, 2006 @11:24PM (#15863819) Journal
    Combining MySpace with Google takes "I'm Feeling Lucky" to a whole new level.

    Ang how long before Google lets users "customize" their Google home page into an illiterate pile of horseshit featuring blaring Boy Band background "music", with hot pink on orange text all on top of some weird, annoying Anime/Sailor Moon/rice mobile backround?
    • i for one am excited by this new oppertunity

  • wow... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by marleyboy ( 174610 ) on Tuesday August 08, 2006 @12:42AM (#15864068) Homepage
    Look what Google just did. They cornered the advertising niche for the largest single techno-social group on the web. They are going to put ads for brand new cell phones in the myspace addicts hands, deliver performing equipment ads to bands, and they will probably turn around and let bands advertise their gigs for next to nothing.

    As we watch it, google is inventing the new economy in the new society. They will establish themselves in such a way that a severe impact on Google's functions will be visibly noticed, and by everyone. So they collaborate with MTV, the largest major youth/indepedant media business in the myspace nation. One metaphor would be that MTV is the natural gas that these kids cook things up with.

    This now becomes political, especially with Google where it is on the net-neutrality issues. Say the government forces Google to do something that adversely impacts these members of myspace. Voices begin to be heard, and these people will be voting soon.

    Here's a couple of questions. How many members of MySpace will be turning old enough to vote by the time Bush is to be replaced? Is that enough to sway a victory? And, what's going to happen when the myspace nation finds a political leader?

    The shit's boiling over and the fans are on high. I don't want to be in here but I'm wearing my yellow slicker.
    • i think you just burst my spleen with metaphors.
    • This now becomes political, especially with Google where it is on the net-neutrality issues. Say the government forces Google to do something that adversely impacts these members of myspace. Voices begin to be heard, and these people will be voting soon.
      But, young people don't vote. [independenceroadtrip.org]

    • How many members of MySpace will be turning old enough to vote by the time Bush is to be replaced? Is that enough to sway a victory? And, what's going to happen when the myspace nation finds a political leader?

      These are some very important questions, and the fact is that most people do not know. The one big event that you did not mention which makes this an even more pressing question is the retirement and eventual disappearance of the baby boom generation. For the past two or three decades, this country

  • Why all the hate? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by crotherm ( 160925 ) on Tuesday August 08, 2006 @04:17AM (#15864571) Journal

    As I read these replies where the majority are negative on MySpace, it reminds me when AOL first had access to usenet, but not as bad. Back then, everyone was worried about the influx of nubes. And rightfuly so. But with MySpace, they have their own place, they are not making the haters go there, they are doing what the internet promised. I think it is a good thing. Kids today are treating the internet like a tool and not some secret society. If you all don't like it, do what we have been saying for other forms of media you don't care for, turn the damn channel!

  • 1. Build Search Engine
    2. Pay people to use it
    3. ?????
    4. profit!
  • site:myspace.com

  • Strings Attached (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Para618 ( 935681 )
    I haven't posted here before, but it seems like this has been overlooked enough that I should mention it.

    "The deal will see Google pay Fox at least $900m (£472m), provided certain web traffic targets are met."

    It makes absolutely no difference if MySpace becomes unpopular, because then Fox doesn't get paid. The only risk Google is taking is if people don't click the ads, but if they simply stop going, there's no problem.

  • Now (Score:2)

    by Kelz ( 611260 )
    Google needs to append their business motto. "Don't be evil, but don't necessarily be smart either."

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