by: Chris Boyette | CNN Money

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Should search engines like Google have to pay publishers like newspapers for linking to their content? France says yes, Google says no -- and it's prepared to go nuclear on the issue.

Google executives met with French government officials on Friday to discuss the company's threat to drop French media sites from its search results if France goes through with a proposal to make search engines pay commissions for links to news content.