Friday, March 21, 2008

The Wall Street Journal is already (secretly) Free

The easy way to get WSJ articles for free (but you don't get all stories):

If you're not a Journal subscriber and would like to read an article that's locked away, here's the first, easiest thing to try: Search for the story's headline in Google News.

On Friday, for example, the Journal published four articles on its front page. Two were available for all, while the following two were offered to subscribers only: "$100 Billion Power Deal Moves Closer in Europe" and "(New Math) x (SEC Rules) + Proxy=Confusion."

Both those locked headlines are in Google News. A search there for "$100 Billion Power Deal Moves Closer in Europe" brings up a Journal link -- click on it, and you get the whole story. Similarly, search for "(New Math) x (SEC Rules) + Proxy=Confusion" and you'll get that piece, too.

Many Journal articles can be accessed this way. But some cannot -- when you search for them in Google News, you don't find a link.

So what to do? If you use Firefox and are comfortable with installing add-ons -- and really, there's nothing difficult about it -- read on for the advanced method, which gives you access to the full WSJ site for free.


READ THE ENTIRE BLOG HERE

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