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Google Scraps Controversial Policy That Gave Free Access To Paywalled Articles Through Search (theverge.com)
For years, Google has provided a nifty trick to get around subscriptions for newspapers and magazines. But the company is now doing away with it. From a report: Google is ending its controversial First Click Free (FCF) policy that publishers loathed because it required them to allow Google search results access to news articles hidden behind a paywall. The company is replacing the decade-old FCF with Flexible Sampling, which allows publishers instead to decide how many (if any) articles they want to allow potential subscribers to access. Google says it's also working on a suite of new tools to help publishers reach new audiences and grow revenue. Via FCF, users could access an article for free but would be prompted to log-in or subscribe if they clicked anywhere else on the page. Publishers were required to allow three free articles per day which Google indexed so that they appeared in searches for a particular topic or keyword. Opting out of the FCF feature was detrimental because it demoted a publisher's ranking on Google Search and Google News.
Hey Bill,
You think slashdot is free? You think the rock-solid performance and unblemished uptime of slashdot.org comes without cost? Do you believe that the highly paid editors can churn out the quality posts you see without demanding and receiving top dollar? How about moderation? Who do you think pays for that Bill?
Bill, you have a choice. You can join my patreon to support slashdoot. If you don't have a patreon you can click that add that sells you a second cell phone or whatever. But it's a choice that needs to be made Bill.
Give me as a user the optional to hide sites with paywalls.
You are the product, not the customer.
You have as much say about Google's practices as the cows have about the MacDonald's menu.