Google to allow publishers to limit access to content from Google News

Google is to allow publishers of paid-for content to restrict the amount of free access internet users can have to their websites, from Google News.

The move announced by Google senior business product manager Josh Cohen yesterday comes in the wake of escalating criticism of the search engine company from newspaper publishers including its leading critic News Corporation chairman and chief executive, Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch says online aggregation amounts to theft of content and at a US media regulators' workshop on the future of journalism yesterday leveled accusations of theft against Google and others.

Murdoch plans to put content from News Corp including from UK papers such as Sun and The Times behind a paywall threatening to remove it from Google's search index and Google News.

However, according to Cohen, publishers would be able to charge for their content while at the same time making it available via Google following the changes announced yesterday. He says in a blog that the two are not mutually exclusive.

Cohen said under its updated First Click Free programme publishers will be able to block Google News users from looking at more than five pages of content a day without registering or subscribing.