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Wait, Google Sent Me

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191–200 of 246 posts

Re: Wait, Google Sent Me

#191

I need a 'facebook sent me' version, lots of websites allow facebook references but not neccesarily google. I'm reduced to going to facebook and sending a message to myself with the url so I can click on it.

Curious as well... Which sites?

Looks like most of them ALSO allow a google user-agent, testing with this plugin, so I'm good.

Mostly various newspaper sites.

Re: Wait, Google Sent Me

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very nice approach. I didn't know that Google had that auto-redirect feature. But it's not working reliably for me. Frequently, when I click the bookmarklet, it gets stuck on a blank page. Does it work every time for you?

Thanks. As @frik noted, it uses "I'm feeling lucky" feature of Google. It requires the page to be indexed to work. If the page isn't indexed then it won't work. But since the pages you'd like to see are indexed almost always, it shouldn't be a problem.

No, that's not what I mean. I mean that the bookmarklet is working intermittently for me on any page. I'll click it, and sometimes get redirected through, and sometimes end up on a blank white page. That doesn't happen to you?

Re: Wait, Google Sent Me

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, those comments are really odd. Every time a WSJ article is submitted here a comment contains a link to avoid the paywall, and every single time people are grateful.

Every time there is also somebody complaining that we shouldn't evade pay walls at all. But that's indeed a really odd set of comments. While there is some criticism on this thread here, it's way more down to Earth, nobody is talking about theft or anything.

[deleted]

Re: Wait, Google Sent Me

#194
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying I think the WSJ's paywall is a good idea (I don't), but if they want to try to make money to support their (largely very good) journalism that way, I don't think it's very nice for someone else to publish a tool that automatically subverts the paywall for countless other users.

This tool saves the 3 seconds it takes to highlight the article title, 'Search Google for ...', and click the link in the search results.

I don't follow. Would using the plugin be less acceptable if the paywall were harder to get around?

Re: Wait, Google Sent Me

#195
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even people inside the NYT know the pricing for digital subscriptions is excessive. They're high because circ department won an internal war and inflated digital prices in a misguided attempt to protect print subs. The NYT has experimented but is still clinging to the past. Which is why the "All Digital Access" subscription costs more than Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Now combined. Give me a break.

This raised an interesting question for me - how much money is saved on a per-subscriber basis by sending the digital version vs. print (for the NYT)? Their pricing certainly doesn't reflect it: Web + Smartphone: $3.75/wk $16.25/mo $195/yr Web + Tablet: $5.00/wk $21.67/mo $260/yr All Digital Access: $8.75/wk $37.92/mo $455/yr 7-Day Home Delivery: $8.90/wk $38.57/mo $463/yr There are multiple levels of insanity here:…

The reason that print+web packages don't cost significantly more than web-only is because print advertising is still a lucrative business. NYT can a a absolutely justify giving away the paper to subscribers on that basis.

Re: Wait, Google Sent Me

#196
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very nice approach. I didn't know that Google had that auto-redirect feature. But it's not working reliably for me. Frequently, when I click the bookmarklet, it gets stuck on a blank page. Does it work every time for you?

> I didn't know that Google had that auto-redirect feature. It uses the functionality of the "I feel lucky" button. It will only work if the site has been indexed by Google, but that's usually the case with news pages that show such fake paywall messages. Btw. please Google fix your frontpage, you serve an unformatted text message (IE9-11): http://s7.postimg.org/52fu9wbdn/google_bug.png

Is it Google or IE that's broken? Other browsers seem to be coping with it - I know these big sites tend to serve really mangled markup/code however.

Re: Wait, Google Sent Me

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...have become irrelevant Please read this article: "Cuomo Orders Emergency Measures to Protect Workers at Nail Salons" http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/nyregion/cuomo-orders-emer... That response by a state governor was in due to an article in The New York Times from a week ago. Also, do not underestimate the amount of original content that these orgs churn out that other sites repackage and repurpose. Irrelevant?…

I think it's wonderful that the NYT made a difference, but that certainly doesn't prove your point. > original content that these orgs churn out that other sites repackage and repurpose. What percentage of their content are truly original, first-to-break stories? Really, be honest. Now how much of their content are fluff/opinion pieces, rehashes of the last month of stories, and info that has been 'repackaged and rep…

It seems like you're arguing about different things. donohoe took issue with you saying the NYT isn't relevant, and you are stating that people's unwillingness to pay equates with irrelevance.

I don't buy that. Many new media sites don't even have reporters in the field - just lots of writers in a room that rewrite what these "legacy" orgs do. So if they disappeared people absolutely would notice, the connection just isn't apparent yet.

News costs money. And a functioning media is important to society. That people are not currently willing to pay for it doesn't mean that it's irrelevant, just that the correct business model has not yet been found.

Re: Wait, Google Sent Me

#198
post #27

This is gonna mess up some major web analytics stats about referrers :)

Only if a lot of people use it. I suspect something like this can continue to fly under the radar while only a tech savvy minority use it.

Re: Wait, Google Sent Me

#199
post #92
post #37

Disappointed in you Jeremy. Its fair for many here to complain about some of the online advertising practices of publishers. However the viable alternative it to pivot to some form of subscription model. Its a hard transition and many orgs are making risky changes to do better. Extensions like these are a step backwards. If you value the work you should support it. See bio for usual disclaimers

The paywall model is currently broken: * not culturally integrated the way we don't mind paying for smartphone apps; * not atomic enough (we want to pay cents for an article, not dollars for a website, nor tens of dollars for a long-term subscription); * it raises convenience and trust issues; * it competes against ad-based models, which adblockers have failed to bankrupt until now; * paywall sites aren't taken into…

we want to pay cents for an article, not dollars for a website, nor tens of dollars for a long-term subscription

Is that true, though? I think Spotify has proved that people prefer subscriptions to one-off payments for music, for example. Having to make a purchase/don't purchase decision for every news article you read doesn't seem like a good experience at all.

Re: Wait, Google Sent Me

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very nice approach. I didn't know that Google had that auto-redirect feature. But it's not working reliably for me. Frequently, when I click the bookmarklet, it gets stuck on a blank page. Does it work every time for you?

Thanks. As @frik noted, it uses "I'm feeling lucky" feature of Google. It requires the page to be indexed to work. If the page isn't indexed then it won't work. But since the pages you'd like to see are indexed almost always, it shouldn't be a problem.

FYI: The test link[1] doesn't work for me. It either reloads a white page, or reloads the page but it is still firewalled.

[1] https://go.umur.io/wsj/

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