Yesterday, while reading about Microsoft’s new white elephant, Zune, I came across two remarkably similar articles on Google News.

Exhibit A: “Why consumers are angry with Microsoft over Zune” by Stan Beer

Exhibit B: “Will it or won’t it: Kill the iPod?” by Techtree News Staff

As university academics will know, the internet has made it very easy to commit plagiarism — in this case, the original and the simulacrum were released on the same day. But the internet also makes it easier to identify plagiarism. If it hadn’t been for Google News putting the two headlines next to each other, would anyone have noticed the similarity between an Australian column and an Indian newsbite?