Search Engine Optimisation Web Log (BLOG)
Editor: Matt Paines

| This News Blog is dedicated to bringing news, information and innovations targeting the Search Engine Optimisation industry.

Search engine concession to newspaper publishers

Google has made a significant concession to newspaper publishers who will now be able to set a limit on the number of free news articles people can read through the search engine.

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

In response, the search engine says its First Click Free programme will allow publishers to 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.

Google senior business product manager, Josh Cohen, said that previously, each click from a user would be treated as free.

Now Google had updated the programme so that publishers can limit users to no more than five pages per day without registering or subscribing, he explained on his blog.

He added that the move will only affect websites that currently charge for content.

Industry experts say the announcement is a reaction to concerns in the newspaper industry that Google is using newspaper content unfairly.

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of Newscorp, has accused search engines 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.

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