Last week, I did a blog entry raising the question of whether Rupert Murdoch's much-heralded talks with Microsoft were actually part of a ploy to spook Google and frighten it into paying him some cash.

Now it looks like Murdoch's strategy is working with Google's Senior Business Product Manager Josh Cohen announcing on Google's news blog that readers coming to a paid site via Google can click through to five stories a day on that site but if they do it a sixth time, the publisher will be able to put up a subscription page.

Forbes has described it as a victory for Murdoch and indeed it is. Google would not have done this if Murdoch hadn't played hard ball.

Still, in an interview with the Guardian, Josh Cohen has tried putting some spin on it by claiming the publishers need Google.

Still, there's no doubt Murdoch has won the first small battle. The question is whether he will be able to keep doing it.