Bypass Subscriptions Using Google

I happened upon two articles this week that both dealt with using Google to view content that is generally for paying subscribers only. I’m sure there are many others out there, but the subscription sites I’m referring to are Experts Exchange and the Wall Street Journal.

If you ever have searched Google for technical information you must have seen a few hits on the Experts Exchange site. In the past all you needed to was click the link and scroll down passed all the advertisements to see the “answers” to the questions posted to EE. Now, the site has changed so that the “answers” are only dummy text that has the appearence of being hidden. Essentially, there is nothing to see anymore.

Step in Google. Apparently, against Google polices, EE allows the Google bot to index all of the data on the EE site including subscriber only data. However, once you try to view the site using a browser the data isn’t displayed. It’s a sneaky way of getting your pages indexed (so you get more hits) without revealing your actual data to the general crowd. Only, Google caches the pages it indexes.

If you simply click the “cached” link for the EE search hits you’ll see the entire page as it was index by Google including the answers to the questions posted on EE. i.e. Free access to the content via Google cache. I wonder how long this will last now that word is getting out.

The WSJ on the other hand is not so sneaky. They simply have an agreement with Google stating that any person that wants to view a WSJ article found through Google News may do so at no charge. However, if you happen to click any of the links while reading that WSJ article you will be prompted to subscribe. It’s easy enough just to run back to Google News and search for the article you want to read and get to it through Google. As I said, not too sneaky, but it is the agreement that WSJ made with Google.

Lastly I should mention that sites such as Google News and Digg seem to have an agreement with the New York Times. If a Times article happens to be opened from Google News or Digg then you are not prompted to enter a username and password. Another annoyance gone.

One of the articles mentioned a tool named Congoo Netpass that provides easy access to usually subscriber only information. I believe they use techniques like the ones mentioned above to bypass any “security” measures. It might be worth a try if you’re interested in reading information at specific sites that are sort of locked down.


Experts Exchange article
WSJ article


2 Responses to “Bypass Subscriptions Using Google”

  1. Robert Says:
    August 1st, 2007 at 10:05 am

    Once I see an article I want to view, how can google get me in?? I didnt get that. I tried the congoo.com site and that worked but they ask you to register. The URL they send you too on WSJ.com site is actually a Congoo.com proxy so the WSJ must be running some Congoo code in their site. It you think about it, what congoo is providing to the WSJ is a way to increase their page views and ad impresions without cannibilizing their existing subscription revenue. Smart.

  2. Shaun Says:
    August 1st, 2007 at 10:56 am

    To use Google News to view WSJ articles just do an advanced search (http://news.google.com/advanced_news_search) and specify “Wall Street Journal” (without quotes) in the News Source field. That will limit the search to just WSJ articles.

    You can also use the Google News standard search and put the text “source:wall_street_journal” (without quotes) in the search box. That will limit your search to just WSJ articles.

    All of the WSJ search results are viewable.

    I cannot speak much about Congoo since I have never used their service.