Google to Allow Publishers to Limit Free Access to Websites

Google has confirmed that it plans to allow newspaper publishers to limit the number of articles people can view for free through its search engine.

The announcement by Google that publishers of online news sites are to be allowed to limit readers who access their websites via its search engine to five free articles per day comes after influential News Corporation Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has voiced his opposition to the ability of people to consistently view what he has described as "high quality reliable news and information" without any form of payment being necessary. As AFP reports his irritation with the situation has led Mr Murdoch, currently attending a two-day meeting of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Washington, to consider preventing Google from indexing his publications. The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, is one newspaper which does require online readers to pay a subscription but as The Business Insider confirms that subscription can be avoided by accessing the Journal through Google or Google News. Mr Murdoch has spoken of how Google and other news aggregator sites "steal" stories yet do not share advertising revenue with the publishers from whom they obtain those stories. There has been talk of Mr Murdoch reaching a deal with Microsoft whereby Bing, the search engine recently introduced by Microsoft, would be the only search engine with access to News Corporation websites. As Mr Murdoch prepares to introduce charges for online access to all News Corporation publications Arianna Huffington, who co-founded The Huffington Post website with Kenneth Lerer and Jonah Peretti, and is the website's editor-in-chief, has accused the 78-year-old Australian-born American and those who think like him of being whiners and in "digital denial". According to AFP Ms Huffington has spoken positively of news aggregator sites. She apparently believes that they assist in the flow of traffic to newspaper websites and should be embraced at a time when the traditional media is struggling to hold on to its customers. Having acknowledged that some members of the public abuse its "First Click Free" system, once on a site access is restricted but returning to Google to click through to another story does not involve any restriction, Google has decided to introduce a revised system which may now see readers confronted by a registration page when they attempt to click through to their sixth article of the day on a website whose publisher has placed a restriction on free access. Josh Cohen, senior business product manager at Google, explained:

Previously, each click from a user would be treated as free. Now, we've updated the program so that publishers can limit users to no more than five pages per day without registering or subscribing

Rory Cellan-Jones, technology correspondent at the BBC, believes that in reality Google has not conceded a great deal by introducing its new policy, although he opines that Mr Murdoch, who is adamant that the public will pay for online news and has warned of the dangers to free speech if the U.S. government offered a bailout to the newspaper industry, may consider the move by Google to be something of a victory for his stance on the matter. Digital Journal has previously reported on how Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, has expressed doubts regarding Mr Murdoch's plans to charge readers of his websites for access to general news items.