Google playing dirty, or being a nice guy?

[Renegade]

I'm sure a lot of people have noticed this, but if you visit a pay site you'll hit the paywall. However, if you hit the site through a Google search, you're good to go. Here's an example:

Search term: Queen ‘horrified’ that Scotland might go it alone

Link: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/
queen-horrified-that-scotland-might-go-it-alone/story-fnb64oi6-1227050425460

Google redirector: https://www.google.com.au/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCEQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2F
www.theaustralian.com.au%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fqueen-horrified-that-scotland-might-go-it-alone%2F
story-fnb64oi6-1227050425460&ei=KtQNVPOFCoj18QWEpoHYBA&usg=AFQjCNFugi1j-
g6v6hQHYGgSbEPBP_KDZQ&sig2=jWjXoevRlFQSMwvhnZba8w

Now, it's nice to get the whole article, but is this boosting Google when you use a Google redirector link for other people?

Has anyone tried this on other search engines?

[KynloStephen66515]

Should I have hit a paywall for either of those links?  Because I get the full article regardless which I click.

[rgdot]

That was (is?) the case for many sites. The old experts-exchange.com being one prime example. Via google they leave it open so to be indexed.

[Edvard]

I loved experts-exchange, especially after I figured out you could just scroll down to the answer under the 'pay-up' banner. 

Now, not so much. 

[Renegade]

Via google they leave it open so to be indexed.

I rather doubt this. Google web crawlers are likely run entirely differently on different IP addresses and wouldn't be sending the same HTTP header information.

[rgdot]

Via google they leave it open so to be indexed.

I rather doubt this. Google web crawlers are likely run entirely differently on different IP addresses and wouldn't be sending the same HTTP header information.

It's the act of the webmaster to allow google bot to see different things than when a real person goes there, actually in these cases you can probably say the webmaster is being "dirty" - as in your thread title.

[tomos]

Should I have hit a paywall for either of those links?  Because I get the full article regardless which I click.

hah, exactly the oppoisite here - have to click out of the register box on both; get the first paragraph on both; and then the 'Premium content' notification.

[4wd]

I'm currently in the UK and I hit a paywall no matter which link I use.  This happens in both K-Meleon and IE.

In IE however, using the Google redirector I can see the whole article for a couple of seconds before the paywall feature kicks in.

Same thing in Cyberfox, see the whole article for a couple of seconds then the paywall happens.

[app103]

The rule is, whatever you show to the Googlebot, you must show to the traffic that Google sends you. You can't show something different, such as a paywall that blocks content from people but isn't there for the Googlebot.

If visitors coming from Google do not see the content promised in the search results, the same content that the Googlebot saw, and they complain, a site could be slapped by Google, for cloaking...and delisted.

That doesn't mean that paywalls can't be used on other traffic, just that if the Googlebot doesn't see a paywall, neither can anyone clicking a link from their search engine, to your site.

[tomos]

Ah, okay - if I simply search google here for:
Queen ‘horrified’ that Scotland might go it alone
and click the link provided, I then get the full article.