51–60 of 374 posts
Hard to turn down $20k/month for doing basically nothing. Props to the author.
This assumes the offer is legit. I seriously doubt even the most nefarious extension nonsense is actually going to bring in $20k/month. Even if there's millions of users.
This one is interesting because it seems harmless, if not even helpful (Monitoring DNS errors). What am I missing here? "I’m sure you get business proposals all the time, so I’ll get straight to the point. I hope what I’m proposing is a little different and might actually interest you. I like Hover Zoom+ as a great alternative to it’s bigger brother Hover Zoom that lost its glamour over the last couple of months. We'…
ChatGPT for Google was #1 on HN earlier this year. Check out the GitHub repo now: that person sold the extension. I had a small side project extension, ~25,000 installs & free to use. I got enough inbound interest trying to "help me monetize" that I thought it would be worth cataloguing all the different unsavory avenues: https://mattfrisbie.substack.com/p/the-ugly-business-of-mone...
The most galling offer we saw on the mobile app side was something that would turn on the user's microphone, and listen for ads on tvs around them to track what they'd been exposed to offline. Adtech is such a thoroughly gross field.
The root problem here is that there's no legitimate way to monetize browser extensions. Extensions are meant to be simple, so it's hard to sell premium features. Extensions usually don't "own" any space to embed ads in.
So there are monetization opportunities, just like any other distribution channel.
This one is interesting because it seems harmless, if not even helpful (Monitoring DNS errors). What am I missing here? "I’m sure you get business proposals all the time, so I’ll get straight to the point. I hope what I’m proposing is a little different and might actually interest you. I like Hover Zoom+ as a great alternative to it’s bigger brother Hover Zoom that lost its glamour over the last couple of months. We'…
Just a guess: they could buy domain names that are available and for some reason get queries. For example often misspelled domains. This would not be forbidden but still a little shady.
I will never do this because violating privacy goes against the core of my beliefs, but there is a conflict I can't seem to work out. On the one hand, I KNOW that the vast majority of users prefer to sell their privacy than pay a single penny. They would gladly click on a "sell my data" over a "pay money" button any day of the week. I know this because I have interacted with enough users to know these things. Many users will suffer a fit when things are not free but won't lose any sleep over giving away their personal details. Again, I speak of the majority and in general terms
On the other hand, I want the internet to be a place where unscroupulous actors don't flourish. Most people don't expect to get things for free in the real world, why should the internet be any different? Why does everyone (myself included) always look for free stuff on the internet?
The worst bit of it all is that in the end, the only people interested in spending money online are data thieves and advertisers. Everyone else is giving their soul. Developers are somehow expected to work for free so that this entire edifice can stand
Hard to turn down $20k/month for doing basically nothing. Props to the author.
This assumes the offer is legit. I seriously doubt even the most nefarious extension nonsense is actually going to bring in $20k/month. Even if there's millions of users.
And if you run a website you get constant emails like this: Hey There, I wanted to reach out and see if accepts guest post contributions or link insertion in existing posts? If so, I'd love to hear more about your guidelines and any specific topics of interest. Thank you for your time, and I'm looking forward to your response. Best Regards, These ones are definitely spammed out en-masse, my site doesn't even have a b…
I wonder what these people are thinking? Like, TOR operators know the risks with connection sharing - most particularly: pedos using their service to share CSAM. But everyday people?! They have no idea until one day they get v&.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The most galling offer we saw on the mobile app side was something that would turn on the user's microphone, and listen for ads on tvs around them to track what they'd been exposed to offline. Adtech is such a thoroughly gross field.
But every time this comes up the threads are flooded with people saying it doesn't actually happen and the ad companies just work out what you're interested in by what you're browsing.