• eweek, Wednesday, December 2, 2009 2:20 PM

Google is now letting newspaper publishers limit the number of articles readers can view for free on Google News to five per day. Perceived as a concession to publishers, the change builds off of Google's First Click Free provision, in which participating publishers allow the crawler to index their subscription content on Google News, or the company's Web search engine.

Readers who find one of those articles can see the full page without requiring them to register or subscribe, even if the content is behind pay wall. While a Google News reader or Google searcher could click to access a story on, say, Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal for free, he or she would see a payment or registration request from the publisher when they clicked on other links on the site. Readers, however, read as much Journal content as they like by accessing other Journal articles on Google. With the change to the First Click Free provision, publishers can cap to five pages per day what readers can view without registering or subscribing.

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