google eu letter magnify  To get my news, I often scan Google
News, which aggregates articles from around the world based on
what the "robot" has determined is trending. It's all about
what's trending. It generally misses breaking news and totally
ignores important commentary, like my column. Instead, it seems
to prefer going to dead links—by which I mean the Wall Street
Journal, which requires a subscription to read.  Today is a case
in point. There was a breaking news story out of CES about the
Dish Network making a bid to buy Clearwire. But instead of
linking to any of the related stories by free and readable
websites, Google decides that the top story should come from the
Wall Street Journal.  In the past, Google had some sort of deal
that allowed users to at least read the lead paragraph, or even
the whole article, before being blocked by the paywall. Unless
you know a bypass trick (discussed below), this no longer
applies. Now you run into the paywall and you are done. I
suppose actual subscribers get p