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Google Scraps Controversial Policy That Gave Free Access To Paywalled Articles Through Search (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

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.

9 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. One can only hope. by msauve · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hopefully, Google will also recognize paywalled sites and refuse to index them, or at least put them at the bottom of the results.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:One can only hope. by Grishnakh · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Also hopefully Trump will trip and fall into a fucking cuisinart,

      This is a horribly thing to wish for.

      If it happened, we'd have Pence as our president, which would be even worse.

    2. Re:One can only hope. by Merk42 · · Score: 2

      This.
      People shouldn't be paid for their work. I'm entitled to free content!

    3. Re:One can only hope. by JohnFen · · Score: 2

      Oh, please.

      If the means by which people are choosing to get paid involves subjecting their audience to the online advertising industry and the tracking that goes with it, that's their own fault, not mine. Such advertising is far from the only way to get paid, it's just the easiest for the websites.

      I don't object to reasonable advertising. I will not tolerate the tracking, though, and until it stop then I am keeping my adblocker in place and not disabling it for anybody. If that means I'm locked out of some sites, then so be it.

    4. Re:One can only hope. by swillden · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Also hopefully Trump will trip and fall into a fucking cuisinart,

      This is a horribly thing to wish for.

      If it happened, we'd have Pence as our president, which would be even worse.

      No, it wouldn't. Pence is a more manageable sort of crazy.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  2. Best Solution by Luthair · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Give me as a user the optional to hide sites with paywalls.

  3. What a coincedence by Bill+Hayden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I too have a decades-old policy: I don't use pay-walled sites.

    --
    Protect your browser with the Force Safe Search add-on
  4. NoScript by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have found that if you enforce javascript blocking using NoScript, some sites that only want you to be able to view a certain 'count' of articles for free just can't keep track and don't block you.

  5. Sigh, Google by mysidia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I DONT WANT content in search results that I can't actually view.

    Fine, get rid of FCF if you want, but then either blacklist subscription sites from search indexes, OR require indexed content match what I can see and
    give me a checkbox to omit them from search results (preferably checked by default).