I always thought that content presented to Google bot should be very very close to what user see when they click link. And if not, Google penalize website hard. Has that changed?
I mean, if rule still stands, than news websites will show up in search results with keywords "subscription" and "article". Instead of "USA" and "brexit".
If content shadowing is ok now, that gives spammers a free ride.
It goes by a different name, but yes - the policy ended according to the article:
> Google’s ending of first-click free now means that subscription publishers can still appear in Google search results without offering access.
Kind of a shame. I remember my frustrations in the mid-2000's of search results riddled with this dark pattern in the form of ExpertsExchange and Quora results.
Objective of Google is to maximize their search revenue. The biggest driver of revenue is users. More users use Google search more often if it shows them relevant high quality content more often and they're satisfied after clicking through and reading.
Big name famous publishers usually produce high quality content. Try want traffic and they also want to monetize via subscriptions. So naturally there's a win win for Google to show high quality results in spite of paywall and find a way to work together.