The free Internet is looking somewhat frayed at the edges with three prominent web sites in recent days announcing their intention to charge for access to content or services. Slashdot, GeoCities and FT.com, Europe's biggest financial news site, are all introducing variants on a theme.

Slashdot has an interesting pay-as-you-go for-no-ads model. Introduced at the same time as more obtrusive Interactive Advertising Bureau-standard ad sizes (most notably, those big boxes you get inside CNET articles), the ad-free version costs $5 for 1,000 page views.

Full story at The Register USA