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Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

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Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#141

I believe any website that is behind the walled garden should be deindexed by Google and other search engines. Whether it's a newspaper, Q/A websites, social media, or anything else. It's only fair. When users search for something, they should only get results of web pages whose content is accessible to all without having to sign up for an account.

Ideally Google would have a search filter that lets you block paywalled sites from your search, if that's what you want.

You've got it backwards I think, google should offer you a search filter to include paywalled sites while they are by default excluded.

The vast majority of the time, someone searching something on the internet isn't willing to pay to see it.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#142
post #103
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im still not convinced that Instagram hasnt figured out a way to identify you and your friends, and has decided theyve used up their trial images. But maybe you are right, maybe you are part of some kind of A/B test to see if an immediate loginwall, with no trial or sample, increases or decreases sign ups.

It's a possibility, and I shouldn't doubt Facebook's reach. Anyway, these friends and relatives I've asked for help they all have Instagram accounts and use the app regularly, always logged-in, and yet that popup showed up in their first attempt to see a picture logged off.

I would expect all those people to have a cookie or equivalent tracker saying "this person has been to instagram before"

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#143
post #57

I believe any website that is behind the walled garden should be deindexed by Google and other search engines. Whether it's a newspaper, Q/A websites, social media, or anything else. It's only fair. When users search for something, they should only get results of web pages whose content is accessible to all without having to sign up for an account.

Google should be returning the highest quality results. If thats a paywalled newspaper, it should not be excluded. However, I do think some kind of tag, similar to [AD] could appear next to the result, warning you not to click it, [PW] or [LW] for paywall and loginwall.

a result is low quality if i can't view the content of it.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#144

“This is to help people view photos in Instagram and understand how to have the best experience on the platform, be part of the community, connecting and interacting with people and the things they love” How does blocking access help people view things? How does blocking access help people understand how to have the best experience? Access is a better experience than access denied. Creating an account and lurking doe…

That's how it sounds when someone's compensation depends on user conversion metric!

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#145

“This is to help people view photos in Instagram and understand how to have the best experience on the platform, be part of the community, connecting and interacting with people and the things they love” How does blocking access help people view things? How does blocking access help people understand how to have the best experience? Access is a better experience than access denied. Creating an account and lurking doe…

They are using Facebook tactics and they are doomed to fail as Facebook did. Well ... I cherish for their innovations. Good bye Instagram.

Facebook did not "fail."

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#146

“This is to help people view photos in Instagram and understand how to have the best experience on the platform, be part of the community, connecting and interacting with people and the things they love” How does blocking access help people view things? How does blocking access help people understand how to have the best experience? Access is a better experience than access denied. Creating an account and lurking doe…

I sometimes start to wonder how many of the people spewing these "we're ensuring you have the best experience by forcing you to use [some arbitrary, hated experience] exclusively" lines actually believe them.

I might be underestimating their ability to lie, but I'd imagine they think the statement is true even if it's still a lie of omission (that it's not the main reason).

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#148
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are using Facebook tactics and they are doomed to fail as Facebook did. Well ... I cherish for their innovations. Good bye Instagram.

Facebook did not "fail."

Depends on ones measure of success.

Mine is, does this product and/or service represent a net benefit to humanity without egregious side-effects?

the answer isn’t always so clear-cut

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#149
There are so many instagram "clones". Not sure what the right term is, but basically its just a copy of the entire site with all the pics/vid links pointing back at fb servers. How they manage to keep this stuff running boggles my mind.

I have moved off everything FB related so its almost become a habit now for me to use these sites to follow certain accounts. With noscript on FF and picking the right clone easy to get the simplest page (no js running) with just the pics and captions.

Just google the insta username and you get the sites.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#150
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google should be returning the highest quality results. If thats a paywalled newspaper, it should not be excluded. However, I do think some kind of tag, similar to [AD] could appear next to the result, warning you not to click it, [PW] or [LW] for paywall and loginwall.

I don't consider anything that's pay-walled to be high quality. If I can't read it, it has no value to me.

What do you consider high-quality?
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