The debate over paywalls, micropayments and the financing of content online took an interesting turn this week when Google signaled its intention to restrict access to certain sites.
Google is permitting publishers to establish restrictions of five visits per day before users need to register or subscribe. It's a compromise measure that permits some viewing of content without necessarily losing total access to it.
"We think this approach still protects the typical user from cloaking, while allowing publishers to focus on potential subscribers who are accessing a lot of their content on a regular basis," writes Google News product manager Josh Cohen.
Of course, it also comes as some publishers --- most notably, Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. --- suggest they will be taking their content off Google's search engine in a move to secure direct funds for the material.
Google is permitting publishers to establish restrictions of five visits per day before users need to register or subscribe. It's a compromise measure that permits some viewing of content without necessarily losing total access to it.
"We think this approach still protects the typical user from cloaking, while allowing publishers to focus on potential subscribers who are accessing a lot of their content on a regular basis," writes Google News product manager Josh Cohen.
Of course, it also comes as some publishers --- most notably, Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. --- suggest they will be taking their content off Google's search engine in a move to secure direct funds for the material.
