Large publishers like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, or Harvard Business Review appear to have adopted paywalls as a major trend. Some websites require you to upgrade to a paid subscription once you’ve read a certain number of articles, while others just restrict access to a significant portion of their content so that only subscribers may read it. The demise of print is undoubtedly the driving force behind paywalls. Since regular readers support their favorite publishers, it is only fair to expect them to refrain from producing cheap click-bait content or oversaturating their websites with display adverts.
Paying for a monthly subscription doesn’t make much sense if you only sometimes visit those sites or if you only require access to one article. Thankfully, there are quick ways to get over these paywalls.
Get around paywalls using Google or an incognito window
The techniques listed below can help you to continue your study or put off doing it right away.
1. Google the article’s headline or content
Yes, it is that simple. You merely need to copy the article’s headline and search for it on Google to access a restricted article. The article ought to come up in the top search results. Simply click on it to read the entire article without any restrictions.
Why do websites allow Google users to access those premium items for free? They would suffer a great deal if everyone who clicked on one of their Google articles was asked to make a payment. Most visitors would quit after that awful experience and return to Google. These visitors are not just irritated, but Google also observes that they rapidly left a publisher’s website and came back to Google. Such actions have a detrimental impact on Google results.
Utilize a Chrome plugin to automate this.
In this case, the adage “There’s an app for that” also holds true. Referer Control is a Chrome addon that can be used to implement rules. For instance, anytime you click on a Wall Street Journal link, the extension can set Google as the referrer. This indicates that the technology makes it appear as though you are visiting from Google, which should remove the limitation.
On websites that allow users to read a set number of articles before displaying a paywall, this technique might not be effective. Check the next site down for those.
2. Use your browser’s incognito mode
Most paywalls that appear once you’ve read all the free articles are easily avoided by using an incognito window. Publishers typically use cookies to keep tabs on how many articles you’ve read. When you use an incognito window (also known as private browsing), websites are unable to set cookies on your computer, preventing them from keeping track of the articles you’ve read.
If private browsing isn’t really your thing, you may also simply remove your cookies. You can do this, for instance, on Chrome by selecting Settings > More Tools > Clear Browsing Data. Change to a different browser is yet another choice. Your article count will be reset to 0 in this manner.
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