Lots of people have been downloading the chatter about Google possibly buying the Napster music service, but Google said it’s not happening.
Having just launched its Music Search, Google soon found bloggers poking at its innards for evidence of a possible music service. Garret Rogers at ZDNet suggested Google had something to hide. His post came out about a day before a Bear Stearns analyst told clients Google might have a music service forthcoming.
The scuttling rumor caused hopeful investors to push shares of Napster up near the $5 mark. Perhaps this would be part of the news formally announced during Google’s earnings webcast later today?
Nope. Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal followed up his earlier post on the story with an update from the U.K.’s Times Online. Google told that publication the Napster rumors were just talk:
“No, we have no plans at this time to develop a music store, or to compete with existing online and offline music retailers.”
It added: “Most of the details included on ‘music results’ pages are links to third-party information and sites. We actually think this feature will help drive traffic for those retailers and music-related sites.
“And, because we include relevant AdWords ads on the ‘music results’ page, this new feature may also increase advertising opportunities for music and entertainment industry advertisers.”
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
