Cloaking, which is the act of showing search engines web content that is different than what you show regular web users, is generally frowned upon. If Google detects cloaking on your web site, you run the very real risk of having your site banned i.e. excluded from all search results.
But, if you're the right person, managing the right site with the right content, you can cloak all you like. How do I know this? Because Marshall Simmonds of the NY Times is doing it all the time. If you've ever been to the NY Times web site, you know that you need to register to see content from their archives. New content is open to the public, but after 7 days, content goes behind a registration wall. Normally, this wall would keep out search engines too which is actually a bad situation for the NY Times, its users, and the search engines.
So I have to give credit to Marshall, whom I've worked with before and can vouch for his knowledge and expertise, for reaching an agreement with Google and Yahoo to permit the NY Times to engage in cloaking. This might open the door for other large and respected publishers, but I'm guessing the small players will still have to play by the rules.
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