> Some JavaScript paywall solutions include the full content in the server response, then use JavaScript to hide it until subscription status is confirmed. This isn’t a reliable way to limit access to the content. Make sure your paywall only provides the full content once the subscription status is confirmed.”

> Why: To help sites understand challenges with the JavaScript-based paywall design pattern, as it makes it difficult for Google to automatically determine which content is paywalled and which isn’t.”

Something smells about this...

My first thought was that Google wants to stop crawling paywalled content (and then later displaying it in their "AI Overviews".)

But I wonder if this penalizes paywalled content. (If it's not crawled, then isn't it also no longer indexed in search results?)