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Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

toot.kuba-orlik.name

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Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#71

Post by sva_ »

bragh wrote: post #46
addicted wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Reddit usage has basically plummeted to 0 at this point because of their pushing me towards an app. I think there are provable cases where an app almost certainly leads to less retention than more and something like Reddit, whose value lies in allowing you to explore the internet is almost certainly one of them.

If reddit ever gets rid of old.reddit.com, that is the day that I stop using it.

I think a lot of mods use it, and that's why they don't get rid of it - since reddit mods basically work for Reddit for free.

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#72

Post by gregdoesit »

captn3m0 wrote: post #37
gregdoesit wrote: post #15

I formerly worked at Uber. I’m surprised that Bolt blocks the web app from working. Uber also built a web app which is incredibly lightweight - here’s a summary on how it was built [1]. It’s a life saver especially if e.g. at an airport and you pay for data over roaming. Uber doesn’t exactly advertise m.uber.com, but there’s no blocking of it. My suspect is that Bold wants you to use their app as they can eg send pus…

Uber actually had two of these: m.uber and dial.uber.com which was geo-fenced to India and from what I understood (looking at the UX, API calls etc) built by a separate team. The latter was shut down unceremoniously a few years ago, but that was always my favourite thing to point out how over-engineered Uber often was - to the point of having two separate mobile websites for the exact same purpose.

Wow, I never knew of dial.uber.com!! m.uber.com was built by an engineering team in India, but for global usage.

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#74

Post by atlasunshrugged »

edvards wrote: post #30
current_thing wrote: post #17

> we, the users, are compliant with such abuse of monopoly. But Bolt is not a monopoly. There are many taxi services in Riga. > I invite you to boycott any company that forces (or coerces) you to install an app... I do not think I will boycott Bolt just because you hacked their product and somehow become outraged. Bolt rides are cheaper than the alternative and .. the app works. The alternative mainstream taxi app ne…

Not really, it is sort of a monopoly. The only competitor app we had was Yandex Taxi, but ever since the war we don't have it here anymore.

Did Uber exit the market in the region completely?

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#75

Post by gtirloni »

AntonyGarand wrote: post #69
gtirloni wrote: post #63

> without an annoying app! I fail to see why an app that delivers the promised feature can be annoying. More annoying than installing extensions, messing with HTTP requests, etc?

Have a look at the images on top of the post, the bolt websites highlight 5 reasons why you might prefer to use the browser. If Bolt didn't artificially geo-restrict this feature, navigating to their site would be all you need to do, and that's less annoying than using their app. The current method, installing an extension and making a rule for it, is the result of this restriction, but would not be needed without bo…

I'd just have installed the app and got on with my life. But I admire the effort.

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#76

Post by propogandist »

Lucasoato wrote: post #45
addicted wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Reddit usage has basically plummeted to 0 at this point because of their pushing me towards an app. I think there are provable cases where an app almost certainly leads to less retention than more and something like Reddit, whose value lies in allowing you to explore the internet is almost certainly one of them.

I really can't understand why Reddit is pushing the app so hard. I mean, keep that as an option, but why creating an awful UX for the mobile web users? You gather more data but the product is worse, less users are staying and you're losing value at the end...

You drive high ad revenue with their mobile app, with all the data mining. The old reddit experience was destroyed to drive ad revenue, they don’t care about UX.

also, beware of reddit URLs bouncing through out.reddit.com — which tracks all link clicks on reddit across mobile and desktop (profiling interests), regardless of login state

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#77

Post by rapind »

mojuba wrote: post #9

There's an (unverified) myth that retention on mobile apps is better. This is one of those things that marketing people keep telling each other without ever verifying the facts. (Unless you deliberately make the web version inferior, of course.) The reasoning behind it is that you should take real estate on the user's home screen at all costs, because your app's icon will serve as a reminder and people will allegedly…

I don’t think it’s really about retention, but rather the value of the richer data set you can gather on your users.

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#78

Post by OtmaneBenazzou »

sva_ wrote: post #67
usrn wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Push notifications. Once someone is hooked on the site a notification can get them back into the dopamine feedback loop very easily. I think this is why restaurant chains have started giving people free food to install their apps too (along with all the data they can sell now.) I think smartphones would be much less popular if people understood why corporations love "apps" so much. It's nothing like the older PC worl…

> Push notifications. Do people not turn these off? When I get an unwanted notification, I immediately withdraw permissions to send notifications, or even uninstall the app

bold of you to assume that the average user knows how to disable anything on their phone

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#79

Post by joshstrange »

solarkraft wrote: post #57
laurencei wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out the "Apollo" reddit app. Its a 3rd party app for Reddit. I've started using it and would never go back to the native Reddit app. No ads, very fast, constant updates etc.

I wish I knew why they're pushing the app so hard so I can specifically avoid doing that. If they want you to just have any app installed they'd win even if you install Apollo.

> If they want you to just have any app installed they'd win even if you install Apollo.

Sorry but this just isn't true. They want the app for the tracking, push notifications, etc. Apollo doesn't have the tracking and does it's own push notifications (so you don't get Reddit's marketing-type notifications). Also it's much harder, if not impossible, to block ads in an app vs the web. Apollo has zero ads, they absolutely don't want you using it, even the web is better for Reddit. It's only a matter of time before they "Twitter" up their API even more than they already do. There are multiple things (stats, polls, certain profile features) that they don't expose through their API.

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#80

Post by kuba-orlik »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #39
kuba-orlik wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But Bolt is not a monopoly. There are many taxi services in Riga. My experience is that if you don't speak Latvian, Bolt is basically the only choice to order a ride in Riga. Oh trust me, how I've tried. I never use those ride hailing services unless there's no other option left. > No thanks I will not boycott Bolt because you chose to violate some ToS and hack their product and somehow become outraged. Well, I'm n…

At the end you talk about having laws passed. What sort of law do you want passed exactly (and do you mean EU, specific EU countries, US, elsewhere)?

I guess one thing could be to force businesses of certain scale (or ideally, of any scale) to not offer services exclusive to a particular digital ecosystem, unless that's the only way to provide that service.

My local restaurant uses an app to do loyalty stamps... I really wish tey would come back to the traditional paper-based ones

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