Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wasn’t it very popular in Brazil for some time?
Yes it was. Source - old Orkut user but not from Brazil.
I'm guessing India - it's where I grew up and it was the network of choice for teens until we moved to Facebook
Google could have killed Facebook with the flick of a switch
61–70 of 145 posts
Re: Google could have killed Facebook with the flick of a switch
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't have been that hard if half an engineer was enough to do the job.
The half an engineer was just the last team member around, only doing essential maintenance to keep it working.
So why allocate more engineers to the project when it was doing fine with half a head?
Re: Google could have killed Facebook with the flick of a switch
#63But.. They end up to be same censuring machine as twitter and Facebook
Re: Google could have killed Facebook with the flick of a switch
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see this sort of comment occasionally. If those engineers hadn't been assigned to work on the project, somebody else would have. It doesn't look like they did that fantastic a job of it either. Also this was a front-end to managing the ad system, not the ad system itself, or the infrastructure it ran on, or the features of facebook that drew in the audience in the first place, etc, etc. Yes some engineers genuinely…
Smacks of maybe survivorship bias. If OP hadn't noticed this chrome dependency, how are we to speculate on the likelihood of someone else noticing it? They even said nobody else wanted to work on it.
Well OP is tooting their own horn
Re: Google could have killed Facebook with the flick of a switch
#65Google actually had a successful social network project, Orkut, they just continuously marginalised it for it to be too NIH for US headquarters.
As far as I can tell, Orkut was the original incarnation of a modern social network, but they failed to capitalize on it.
Orkut was a clone of The social network created by the namesake's previous company.
It was launched about the same time as Facebook and after Friendster.
Re: Google could have killed Facebook with the flick of a switch
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
It may be "many" but it does not mean that the defining nature of advertising is ethically neutral. I think I just quote Banksy/Tejaratchi: "People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is h…
One time I saw a fascinating article about how scientists were working to grow skin complete with natural looking hair from stem cells for burn victims and such. I thought the article was really neat and I was in a hurry so I emailed a the link to myself. The next time I logged into my gmail to read it I happened to be at a machine without adblock and I saw that google was serving me ads for garbage treatments for ma…
Why are burn survivors unacceptably ugly to you, but baldness survivors are acceptable looking?
Re: Google could have killed Facebook with the flick of a switch
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please note that all these examples from the quote refer to a certain genre of ads targeted at the general public. Many teach ads I see are completely different. I often click on ads for microcontrollers for example, and I have't yet seen one I would find offensive in any way. They don't make me feel small and unworthy, on the opposite: the make me feel empwered. So it's really about the content of the ad, not advert…
Note that the quote originates from the 90's, way before ad tech as it is currently known. Advertising is a bit like finance. There exists an important, tiny core that is surrounded by a massive amount of activity whose societal benefit is doubtful at best.
That's not just ads or finance, that's all of capitalism. (If I'm good at programming I have to convince a farmer its in his interest to give me food, even if he doesn't need my software.) And communism has its own problems.
Re: Google could have killed Facebook with the flick of a switch
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
One time I saw a fascinating article about how scientists were working to grow skin complete with natural looking hair from stem cells for burn victims and such. I thought the article was really neat and I was in a hurry so I emailed a the link to myself. The next time I logged into my gmail to read it I happened to be at a machine without adblock and I saw that google was serving me ads for garbage treatments for ma…
Why are burn survivors unacceptably ugly to you, but baldness survivors are acceptable looking?
I used to deliver food to a burn unit in a hospital. I'm not going to deign this question with a response.
Re: Google could have killed Facebook with the flick of a switch
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are so many aspects of adtech that are ethically neutral. Just as advertising itself - there are even ads created by great creators that are works of modern art. It's only when it's abused adtech becomes evil.
There is a difference between the medium (ads) and the targeting and distribution technology (adtech). A great ad evokes some kind of feeling, can live with you for a long time, and even bring back memories that you cherish. Yes, I agree with you, it can be a form of art in that regard. Adtech, however, is an intentionally invasive technology that exploits any means necessary and technologically feasible to more narr…
> But you can't have (commercially successful) adtech without invasion of privacy.
I think we (as a society, not just tech people) specifically need to take care of this point. Removing tracking will make it less effective, so what. We've had advertising without tracking since 19th century.
Re: Google could have killed Facebook with the flick of a switch
#70[deleted]