Google Offers to Limit News Access

Users would have to pay after 5 clicks through from Google
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 2, 2009 6:45 AM CST
Google Offers to Limit News Access
FILE - In this Oct. 27, 2006 file photo, a mouse and Google mousepad are shown at Google's New York office.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

In a bid to placate struggling media companies but keep content in search results, Google has offered publishers a program that limits users to five free articles a day. A user who clicks through from Google to the same news source more than five times a day would be automatically rerouted to a subscription or registration page, Reuters reports.

"As newspapers consider charging for access to their online content, some publishers have asked: Should we put up pay walls or keep our articles in Google news and Google search?" a Google rep said. "In fact they can do both." The change to Google's First Click Free program—which allows readers to circumvent pay walls by clicking through from Google—will only be offered to news sources that already charge for content, BBC reports.
(More Google stories.)

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