Google's currently doing a similar thing with their new Customer Insights—on sites like ZAGAT.com, instead of seeing a paywall, the user is asked to answer a survey question.
DoubleRecall (YC S11) Nabs $1.6 Million For Alternative To Paywalls
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Re: DoubleRecall (YC S11) Nabs $1.6 Million For Alternative To Paywalls
#12SolveMedia.com has been doing this for sometime now. What's different here?
Re: DoubleRecall (YC S11) Nabs $1.6 Million For Alternative To Paywalls
#13SolveMedia.com has been doing this for sometime now. What's different here?
With DoubleRecall you don't prove that you are a human, but you prove that you've read the message so you get something in return = quality content.
Re: DoubleRecall (YC S11) Nabs $1.6 Million For Alternative To Paywalls
#14Forcing people to read ads -- check off another world-problem solved :p This stuff bums me out. Guessing this a solid group of engineers; could be working on something that matters instead.
I never get this attitude. Without mechanisms for publishers to monetize visitors, publisher quality deteriorates or becomes untenable for independents. In a world where nobody wants to pay for content, this is a minimally disruptive, novel way to pass revenue directly into the hands of publishers that are working hard to create content.
I would much rather pay a few cents than watch an Ad on Hulu. It got so bad I simply stopped watching Hulu all together. Now yet another start up has tacked the hard monetization problem by crating even more annoying advertizing. And you don't see anything wrong with this picture?
PS: Advertizing is basically a zero sum game. It's a multi billion dollar industry, but most people spend most of what they make and better advertizing does not change that fact.
Re: DoubleRecall (YC S11) Nabs $1.6 Million For Alternative To Paywalls
#15SolveMedia.com has been doing this for sometime now. What's different here?
With DoubleRecall you don't prove that you are a human, but you prove that you've read the message so you get something in return = quality content.
Yes, I'm getting something in return, I get to take the desired action on the publisher's site. That's the case with any CAPTCHA. With the old CAPTCHA, I was at least helping convert printed books to digital formats. How is Double Recall different from Solve Media? It's obviously the same business model.
Re: DoubleRecall (YC S11) Nabs $1.6 Million For Alternative To Paywalls
#16Forcing people to read ads -- check off another world-problem solved :p This stuff bums me out. Guessing this a solid group of engineers; could be working on something that matters instead.
could be working on something that matters instead
Sorry, but what does this even mean? You may it seem like there is a universally accepted definition of the word "matters" to which these folks are not living up to.
Re: DoubleRecall (YC S11) Nabs $1.6 Million For Alternative To Paywalls
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never get this attitude. Without mechanisms for publishers to monetize visitors, publisher quality deteriorates or becomes untenable for independents. In a world where nobody wants to pay for content, this is a minimally disruptive, novel way to pass revenue directly into the hands of publishers that are working hard to create content.
I would much rather pay a few cents than watch an Ad on Hulu. It got so bad I simply stopped watching Hulu all together. Now yet another start up has tacked the hard monetization problem by crating even more annoying advertizing. And you don't see anything wrong with this picture? PS: Advertizing is basically a zero sum game. It's a multi billion dollar industry, but most people spend most of what they make and bette…
A lot of people "would rather pay a few cents than...", but who "would rather create an account, verify their email address, get out their credit card, enter their payment information, and confirm a $0.05 payment than..."?
Maybe the best form of protest would be to come up with a one-click way to pay a few cents for something. As far as I know, Flattr is about the only thing in that space.
Re: DoubleRecall (YC S11) Nabs $1.6 Million For Alternative To Paywalls
#18Forcing people to read ads -- check off another world-problem solved :p This stuff bums me out. Guessing this a solid group of engineers; could be working on something that matters instead.
I'd rephrase this as: Enabling people to skip the paywall by doing a minimal thing which is a little more than a click. Behavior design matters and is a great challenge for engineers.
Correction: behavior design matters and is a great challenge for our established banking system, which only wants to deal in Big Money (much like how many start-ups now only want to deal in Big Data).
Re: DoubleRecall (YC S11) Nabs $1.6 Million For Alternative To Paywalls
#19Forcing people to read ads -- check off another world-problem solved :p This stuff bums me out. Guessing this a solid group of engineers; could be working on something that matters instead.
I never get this attitude. Without mechanisms for publishers to monetize visitors, publisher quality deteriorates or becomes untenable for independents. In a world where nobody wants to pay for content, this is a minimally disruptive, novel way to pass revenue directly into the hands of publishers that are working hard to create content.
I agree that there is a problem to solve. But I'm not sure if this approach does anything other than shift some advertising money around. Does it really change the equation or the size of the pie? I don't think so. Whether or not it's minimally disruptive depends on how it is used - like all advertising.
It's perfectly OK for a startup to do advertising stuff, but I agree with jrkelly that this is not what the world needs engineers for. It's just a way to make some money and I wish them luck with that.
Re: DoubleRecall (YC S11) Nabs $1.6 Million For Alternative To Paywalls
#20Congratz guys! If you ever need someone taking up room at your place again, you know where to find me.
Swizec should mention that he was an intern at DoubleRecall last summer.