[LINK] google to limit news access

[Jan Whitaker]

Google to limit free news access
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8389896.stm?ad=1

Newspaper publishers will now be able to set a limit on the number of 
free news articles people can read through Google, the company has announced.

The concession follows claims from some media companies that the 
search engine is profiting from online news pages.

Under the First Click Free programme, publishers can now prevent 
unrestricted access to subscription websites.

Users who click on more than five articles in a day may be routed to 
payment or registration pages.

'Gaining' revenue

"Previously, each click from a user would be treated as free," Google 
senior business product manager Josh Cohen said in a blog post.

"Now, we've updated the programme so that publishers can limit users 
to no more than five pages per day without registering or subscribing."

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch had earlier accused firms such as Google 
of profiting from journalism by generating advertising revenue by 
linking readers to newspaper articles.

Some readers have discovered they can avoid paying subscription fees 
to newspaper websites by calling up their pages via Google.

BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said the concession 
was relatively minor but Mr Murdoch might see it as vindication of 
his decision to take on Google.

Google users may start seeing registration pages appear when they 
click for a sixth time on any given day at websites of publishers 
using the program, according to Mr Cohen.



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

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