Hack Wine Spectator with Google Part II
It’s back! I know Wine Spectator will get wind of it soon and fix it, but for now, access to Wine Spectators paid content is available.
Now Click Here
The power of Google’s cache strikes again!
This time instead of using Google News, we use Google’s Cache through search. Here’s how it works.
- Go to Wine Spectator’s site.
- Click on Articles and Features > Headlines and scroll down to a headline a few days old.
- Copy and paste that headline into Google with quotes. (e.g. “A Week in the Rhone: Part 3″)
- Click on the Cached link in the top search result
- Read!
Here’s a few recent stories:
- Tasting Highlights: Loring and A.P. Vin
- Changing Australian Cabernet
- Here’s to the Holidays: Part 1
- Sanford Sacks Longtime Winemaker
- Here’s to the Holidays: Part 2
- A Week in the Rhone: Part 3
Note: Looks like there is a two day lag before the stories are viewable on Google’s Cache.
Disclaimer: Again, I am not showing you any illegal hacking here. The problem lies with Wine Spectator and Google, and I am just pointing it out. Hopefully they’ll get it fixed soon.
December 22nd, 2005 at 5:11 pm
Very interesting. Thank you for this.
December 23rd, 2005 at 1:25 pm
This is interesting, why would the google spider gain access to password protected pages? Unless the developer specifically allowed it…
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:42 pm
That’s a good point, and I believe therein lies Wine Spectator’s problem. Probably in an effort to increase search term relativity for their site they allow access to these pages.
Step 1: Allow indexing of every story
Step 2: Drive traffic thru to the site via popular wine search terms
Step 3: Block access to the story, except for a teaser at the top
Step 4: Profit from new subscribers dying for the information!!
My guess is they just don’t know there is a loophole.
March 31st, 2006 at 9:10 am
[…] Here is a simple hack for you to keep up with the action if you don’t subscribe. This process is inline with the previous method of hacking the site mentioned by Winexpression, but I have discovered that this new method works with every part of the website. […]