As I'm sure you all know, some news sites require registration before you're allowed to see their content. (silly policy if you ask me, but that's another matter.) However, some of these sites, e.g. nytimes.com, are configured such that if you're coming from google, you don't need to register. For instance, you can't see this story unless you're logged in, but if you simply paste the link into google then click on the link google presents you with, you're in.

I set out today to write an extension for Firefox to exploit this useful feature, but there was no need to, as an extension already exists that does exactly what's necessary.

1) Go download and install the RefControl extension.

2) In the configuration screen, add entries for both nytimes.com and www.nytimes.com, with the selected action being set to send the string "http://www.google.com/search"

3) Voila - you now have full access to nytimes.com, b/c your browser will tell the nytimes.com server that you're always coming from google.

Anyone know of other sites that use a similar scheme? Post them in the comments.