Outspoken billionaire cum
provocateur Mark Cuban charged Google and other content aggregators Tuesday of being freeloaders -- or worse. "The word that comes to mind is vampires," he said. "When you think about vampires, they
just suck on your blood."
Cuban, who some might call a futurist and heads HDNet, said aggregators are effectively making money off others' expensive news-gathering.
He urged newspapers
and others to block Google News from linking to their sites. "Show some balls," he said.
Google benefits from sponsored links when a person searches for a particular topic.
"There's
absolutely no reason for you guys to be indexed on Google News ... if they don't pay you," he said, addressing publishers at a New York OnMedia event.
Google has argued that publishers can block
content from its aggregation at any time, but suggests the system helps drive traffic to their sites. But as sites begin to erect pay walls and charge for content, it has altered a policy in which
Google News users can only access five articles a day free on those sites.
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News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has been a strident anti-aggregator. Earlier this month, his company blocked an
aggregator in the U.K. from linking to sites for News Corp. papers, including The Times of London. Murdoch has said his papers are erecting pay walls.
After Cuban delivered a keynote
address Tuesday, he sat on a panel along with Huffington Post Chief Revenue Officer Greg Coleman, who said his company will be the anti-Murdoch. It has no intention to do anything but remain a
fully ad-supported operation. "One hundred percent advertising," Coleman said.
Coleman said the company is not daunted by a free-content world, and has "a huge wonderful business with Google
right now." Huffington Post has some cost advantages in a lean staff and no legacy distribution expenses.
Separately, Cuban said the text-heavy Kindle is a rudimentary and challenged
device. "It looks like a first-generation product that has no future," he said. In contrast, the new iPad with its video and rich-media opportunities offers opportunities for publishers to experiment
with new business models and sell advertising.
"Good content always has a place," Cuban added.