Tired of Paywalls? Host This Googlebot Impersonator: Ladder HTTP Proxy

1. What Exactly Is Ladder—and Why Should You Care? Ladder is an open-source, Go-based HTTP proxy that clones the core trick used by sites such as 1ft.io and 12ft.io: it dresses up as Googlebot, asks the target page for the “search-engine” version, strips the paywall markup, and hands you a clean article. You host it yourself, so nobody logs your reading list and no third-party limits your usage. Who this guide is for College (and above) reading level Zero tolerance for “marketing fluff” Comfortable copying commands into a terminal or Docker prompt What you will get A private proxy running …