The shrinking Internet

This is not good news at all but time will determine its impact.

"Google to limit free newspaper articles"

by

Jefferson Graham

December 1st, 2009

USA TODAY

Google, which has come under fire for making newspaper content easier to read without buying a paper edition, made changes Tuesday to allow publishers more control of their content.

Google updated its First Click Free program to let publishers limit online readers to looking at no more than 5 pages of content per day without registering or subscribing.

"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," writes Google's senior business product manager Josh Cohen on a Google blog.

That way, the publisher still gets its articles indexed, while at the same time, can charge for reading. The pieces will be labeled as "subscription" in Google News.

Recently, the blogosphere has been aflutter over News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch's suggestion that he might take Wall Street Journal online content (which is a subscription service) away from Google, because WSJ.com articles can be read for free via Google.

Google's new policy might help satisfy Murdoch -- but there are potential risks. Google says subscription content won't necessarily be at the top of the search findings. "That is not a decision we make based on whether or not it's free," says Google. "It's simply based on the popularity of the content with users and other sites that link to it."