Google to Require Registration to Read Google First Free Clicks
Google is trying to get out in front of Bing’s assault on it search engine. Bing is setting up deals–most notably with Rupert Murdoch’s publications–to de-index from Google for paid indexing on Bing.
FROM Beyond The Pay Wall: Google Limits Free News-Reading Access:
Google tweaked its First Click Free program in an apparent appeal to publishers concerned about pay walls. Publishers who choose to opt in to the revised First Click Free program, according to Google, can now limit the number of free user clicks on their content through Google platforms to five per day.
“If you’re a Google user, this means that you may start to see a registration page after you’ve clicked through to more than five articles on the Web site of a publisher using First Click Free in a day,” wrote Josh Cohen, senior business product manager for Google, in a Tuesday post to the Google News blog. “We think this approach still protects the typical user from cloaking, while allowing publishers to focus on potential subscribers who are accessing a lot of their content on a regular basis.”
Can this be any indication other than Google is taking the Bing challenge seriously? Bing is the offspring of MicroSoft and Yahoo and is the first serious challenge to Google mastery of search engines on the Internet.
The previous version of First Click Free allowed users to access articles from subscription-based sites like The Wall Street Journal’s online edition. Users could search for a particular article on Google and then click through to the full article from there — a well-known workaround for some paid sites that’s drawn the ire of publishers.
The ire of Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal was the case that’s been most cited.
MORE: Google Caves to Murdoch, Adds New Options for Publishers
MORE on GOOGLE & MICROSOFT BROWSERS: As Google Backs Away From A Plug-in, Microsoft Rushes Towards One
Murdoch is sinking his own ship. Good for him.
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