New York Times paywall restrictions to include all “major” search engines
The New York Times has said that its recently announced paywall will be accompanied by a five article per day limit on “all major search engines,” (after initially limiting this requirement to Google) when the system is launched globally on March 28.
A spokesperson refused to clarify how they were defining a “major” search engine, presumably Bing and Bekko, but questions have been raised as to whether such services have the requisite functionality to comply with the NYT’s goals.
The NYT is thought to have been prompted into broadening its link limiting strategy from Google alone after admitting that any link from anywhere would allow users to leapfrog its payment structure, meaning Google could have been the only site on the web which would have been unable to offer unlimited free links.
Apparently this lax enforcement is a bid to ensure that the paper continues to reap the benefit of social media listings whilst simultaneously pocketing online subscription cash.