Access For-Pay Web Sites, For-Free!

Have you ever come across a link in a blog post or from a Google search to a Web site that essentially wanted you to either register or pay to access the content? Well, it just so happens that most of the sites that make you register allow Google to come right on in because they want their content indexed so that people will find it, come to their site, and register!

Given that information, all we need to do now is convince the Web site that we are Google. The way to do that is to change a setting, called the User Agent, in the Windows registry which gets fed to the Web server in question.

I’ve put together an easy way to do this for myself, and I’m sharing it with the world in case anyone else would like to do so as well.

Begin Here:

When you come across one of those crappy sites you’ll want to “Become Google”. To automate the process of doing this in Internet Explorer simply do the following:

1. From the VIEW dropdown menu select TOOLBARS and make sure your LINKS bar is being displayed.
2. Right click on this link (Become Google) and select “Add to Favorites…”. YOU MUST add it to your LINKS directory.
3. It should now appear on your Link Toolbar.

When you’re done browsing that site you’ll want to “Become Myself” again so you’ll need to do the following:

1. Right click on this link (Become Myself) and select “Add to Favorites…”. Then add it to your LINKS directory.
2. It should now appear on your Link Toolbar.

Now, when you want to switch back and forth you can use these quick links to execute small registry shortcuts that change you back and forth.

You’re Done.

For those of you that are paranoid (hopefully everyone), and know what you’re doing, I encourage you to read the linked registry files and examine the changes. I would appreciate a little peer review in the comments to let people feel a little more comfortable about this.

PS – You should never, EVER execute registry files from any unknown site where you do not trust the author completely. They could do very, very nasty things to your computer. If you trust me because I’m famous and have an impeccible reputation, then so be it. If not, no offense is taken!

Props go to Kim Siegler for the original tip on Make Create.