Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

NYTimes Extends Paywall Limit, as Coders Jump Over Wall and Reporters Game System

by Abby Seiff on March 22, 2011 at 10:50 AM

new york times paywall overlay
Either Google pitched a fit, or the New York Times got savvy to the fact that not everyone searches with Google. (Wait, they don't?) Either way, TechCrunch is reporting that the paper decided to extend its five-article-per-day referral limit to all "major" search engines.

It's an intelligent-enough about-face from the initial policy, which the Times said would apply only to Google. After all, why not plug a loophole that allowed users to access endless free articles by utilizing other search engines? But TechCrunch questions whether the other search engines even have the functionality to implement this cap.

Of course, the bigger question is whether or not moves like these will make even a dent in the face of so much bad code and user opposition. Thanks to Canadian developer David Hayes, there's already a bookmarklet that scrubs the four lines (seriously, four lines) of Javascript responsible for the article-blocking overlay.

Meanwhile, even those who don't wish to go to all that trouble have pointed out that the plethora of coverage through other outlets (primarily Twitter) may make in-site navigation altogether unnecessary.

But maybe it won't even come to that. Just this morning, I got an e-mail offering "unlimited access to NYTimes.com, courtesy of Lincoln." So, just to be clear, there's a chance advertiser money will allow users to read articles for free. Hm.

Tags: advertisement, advertising, bookmarklet, David Hayes, DavidHayes, forbes, javascript, media, NewYorkTimes, NiemanJournalismLab, nyt, nytimes, nytimes.com, PayWall, SocialNetworking, techcrunch, top, web

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular