3 Ways to access ‘Must Sign Up to View’ Sites
Mar. 12th, 2008 | by Shankar Ganesh || This happens many times to me: I search on Google for a problem I’m having with my computer, click on a search result, reach the site (most of the time, it’s a forum), and boom! I have to register in order to view the solution on the page. Or worse, on some occasions, they want me to pay them to view the page. |
But instead I have tried ways to bypass such sign up forms. Here are a few tips for you:
1. Bug Me Not
Aibek previously covered Bug Me Not which is a wonderful service that provides disposable login details for most sites and forums. You could use those IDs and passwords to login - bypassing compulsory registrations. Most of the time this should suffice, especially for popular sites. There’s also a Firefox extension available.
But Bug Me Not obviously does not have login details for every site on the entire internet. Sometimes the login details provided for some of these sites don’t work anymore. In that case, you could try the following methods:
2. Google Cache
If the snippet near the result seemed to talk about the problem you’re having, there are high chances that Google Cache should have a copy of the website you landed on. One of the sites where it works quite well is ‘Experts Exchange’.
Instead of clicking on the direct link, just click the ‘Cached’ link near the search result. View the page. Go till the end of it. You might end up finding the information there.
3. Be the Bot
In a rare case when you’re not able to view the solution even by accessing the Google Cache, you can use Be The Bot.
Be The Bot fools the site to thinking that Google Crawler Bot is accessing it. And hence, you’ll get a view of the ‘real’ site via Be The Bot.
What other ways can you think of to bypass compulsory registration forms in sites, especially forums?
(By) Shankar Ganesh, a 16 year old Blogger and Freelance Writer from India. He writes about Computers and Software at Killer Tech Tips.
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Thanks for BeTheBot; I hadn’t heard of that one. I also occasionally use the WayBack Machine at http://web.archive.org - I made a keyworded search for it.
Thank you for that timely piece of info. Be the bot…nice touch!
If you’re using Firefox, you can also use the Firefox user agent switcher to pretend to be googlebot.
http://linuxtnt.wordpress.com/2007/10/20/daft-web-sites-outfoxed-by-firefox-user-agent-switcher/
You can also use this to pretend to be an iPhone, etc.
Thanks, I’ve tried this extension before, but I totally didn’t remember this when writing this article.
You may also want to consider mailinator. When a site requires registration, enter your email address as: @mailinator.com
Mailinator (http://www.mailinator.com) will accept any incoming email and keep it for some days. You may then access it if you check for the address you used. Anybody else could theoretically also read it but should know the specific string you used as your address…
Good one. Thanks for sharing.
I have tried mailinator before, and I really find these temporary email services very helpful.
Good tips - I’ve been using another method that you missed. Why reveal now? I’ll write a post on it on MUO.
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Be the bot…. great stuff!
For Experts Exchange … no fancy tricks are needed. The results at the top of the page are hidden, but the exact same answers are UNHIDDEN at the bottom of the page. Try scrolling down! It’s because Google has strict rules about showing the googlebot a different page than regular users.
Experts Exchange: Scroll Down!
Didn’t know that when I wrote this
But I still believe Google Cache might help you discover hidden info in a lot of other sites.
Great tips, there are more like them here.
bethebot.com is wading through shark infested waters. i dont think google, as magnanimous and open minded as it seems to be, is going to take kindly to random sites forging its headers. expect, at the very least, legal action leading to a court order to shut it down very soon.
I don’t think you have to worry about Google suing BeTheBot.com.
After all, Internet Explorer (and it’s not the only one) forges its headers to pretend to be a Mozilla browser.
It’s a fine tradition.
be the bit sounds good …
way back machine doesnt have images most of the time …
so IT related articles dont have screen caps …
[...] This happens many times to me: I search on Google for a problem I’m having with my computer, click on a search result, reach the site (most of the time, it’s a forum), and boom! I have to register in order to view the solution on the page. Or worse, on some occasions, they want me to pay them to view the page.http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-to-access-must-sign-up-to-view-sites/ [...]
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Thanks now experts exchange will probably close that hole.
Great
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I never heard of “Be the Bot” before, gonna have to try that out, thanks.
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Thanks for Expert Exchange trick.
3 Ways to access “Must Sign Up to View” sites…
Mar. 12th, 2008 | by Shankar Ganesh
This happens many times to me: I search on Google for a problem I’m having with my computer, click on a search result, reach the site (most of the time, it’s a forum), and boom! I have to register in order to view …