Google’s flexible sampling solution that replaced the first-click-free solution for gated, subscription or paywalled content launched in 2017. Since then, many publishers use the paywall structured data to communicate to Google the full content that is behind the content gate. Some are calling this solution “leaky” in which Google responded saying it is not.
Ryan Singel, a journalist covering tech business, tech policy, civil liberty and privacy issues, who has written at Wired and many other respected publications, posted a comment on this site calling this Google solution “leaky.” He said:
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, then responded to that comment on this blog and on X and on Mastodon saying it is not leaky. Here is Danny’s response from this blog:
Sullivan also posted on X, saying:
Some replied to that saying that you, a user, can change their user agent to a Googlebot. But technically, if you do the Googlebot IP verification method, you can block those attempts:
And let’s not forget that Google does label content served through flexible sampling or that has a paywall requirement. I get complaints from my readers when I link to articles and do not mention there is a content gate on it. I mean, a label would be nice from Google, so at least you know before you click. But that is for a different story.
It use to be way easier to access gated content under the first-click-free program. It is much harder to do that now under flexible sampling. But technically, anything plugged into the internet can, in some way, be accessed. Some are harder than others…
