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Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

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Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#11

Post by axod »

trapper wrote: post #5
hapless wrote: post #4

I realize that someone, somewhere, is running webtv and would love a service like Scribd. That person is not able to use it because it's a flash and javascript nightmare. The rest of us, who have regular PCs with the modern software that scribd requires, have document readers for all of the various file formats. The very worst of these readers is faster and more pleasant to use than the best scribd rendering. Lastly,…

I think it does, IF your goal is acquisition. Adobe must be their prime target in my opinion, google wouldn't (too much js focus).

What would Adobe do with it if they bought it?

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#12

Post by axod »

Mazy wrote: post #10
axod wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. ONE person decides to use scribd to show some text on techcrunch, and suddenly the whole readership of techcrunch are "users" of scribd? Measuring success in terms of pageviews in a passive widget isn't a good measure.

I highly doubt comscore is claiming to be tracking embed/widget traffic. Those numbers are supposed to be for the site itself. They are quantified, and quantcast shows the vast majority of their traffic is to their destination: http://www.quantcast.com/scribd.com see scribd.com vs The Scribd Network

True, so people are linking instead of embedding. But the point is the same... If one person makes the decision to link to scribd instead of the pdf, and 100 people follow that link, it doesn't really mean 100 people value the service.

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#13

Post by jasonkester »

hapless wrote: post #4

I realize that someone, somewhere, is running webtv and would love a service like Scribd. That person is not able to use it because it's a flash and javascript nightmare. The rest of us, who have regular PCs with the modern software that scribd requires, have document readers for all of the various file formats. The very worst of these readers is faster and more pleasant to use than the best scribd rendering. Lastly,…

Scribd is a cool service run by cool people, and I'm happy they managed to scrape together enough funding to keep going for a while longer.

But then possibly I'm biased, because without them we'd be forced to roll our own pdf/doc/xls/ppt viewer to stick inside of Twiddla. As it is, Scribd is just about a perfect fit for us off the shelf.

But you're right. They've got a bit of an oldskool business model that sort of relies on Google buying them at some point. I hope things work out for them.

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#15

Post by marketer »

axod wrote: post #3

This is sad news. Just when you thought flash was dead for all but video, it's now being used to show text.

Have you ever thought about using flash for your web chat service? I'd actually prefer it over standard javascript, especially because it would have a real socket connection.

Also, flash has pretty good support for text rendering. You can embed any font into any swf file, and it has anti-aliasing and effects. There was a presentation about the new flash 10 text features recently - http://is.gd/ejKj

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#16

Post by trapper »

axod wrote: post #11
trapper wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it does, IF your goal is acquisition. Adobe must be their prime target in my opinion, google wouldn't (too much js focus).

What would Adobe do with it if they bought it?

I don't know. I'm not saying it would be a good buy! :)

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#17

Post by marketer »

hapless wrote: post #4

I realize that someone, somewhere, is running webtv and would love a service like Scribd. That person is not able to use it because it's a flash and javascript nightmare. The rest of us, who have regular PCs with the modern software that scribd requires, have document readers for all of the various file formats. The very worst of these readers is faster and more pleasant to use than the best scribd rendering. Lastly,…

About the speed issue - how is a 20 MB reader (Adobe Reader 9) plus the cost of downloading the entire pdf faster than a 200 kb swf file and having the document streamed? That makes no sense.

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#18

Post by axod »

marketer wrote: post #15
axod wrote: post #3

This is sad news. Just when you thought flash was dead for all but video, it's now being used to show text.

Have you ever thought about using flash for your web chat service? I'd actually prefer it over standard javascript, especially because it would have a real socket connection. Also, flash has pretty good support for text rendering. You can embed any font into any swf file, and it has anti-aliasing and effects. There was a presentation about the new flash 10 text features recently - http://is.gd/ejKj

From a user point of view, why do you care if it has a real socket connection, or a emulated connection that does exactly the same thing? I'm not sure any user anywhere would notice the difference. There is no noticable difference in terms of latency, negligible difference in terms of bandwidth. I have thought about the possibility of using it where available, but I don't think it'd really be worth the effort and potential issues.

Fair enough for text rendering, but html is getting better font rendering also. I know which I'd put my money on. I can't even select the damn text on scribd.

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#19

Post by jawngee »

ajkirwin wrote: post #14

Screw scribd. Give me something that converts pdfs into straight (x)html, and I will be happy.

> soffice -headless -accept="socket,host=127.0.0.1,port=8100;urp;" -nofirststartwizard

> java -jar jodconverter-cli-2.2.1 yourpdf.pdf yourpdf.html

Happy now?

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#20

Post by patio11 »

axod wrote: post #11
trapper wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it does, IF your goal is acquisition. Adobe must be their prime target in my opinion, google wouldn't (too much js focus).

What would Adobe do with it if they bought it?

Get sued for having acres of copyrighted content and pockets deep enough to justify the lawyers' fees?
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