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Instapaper is joining Pinterest

blog.instapaper.com

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Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#161

Post by paulcole »

nroach wrote: post #154
bthdonohue wrote: post #96

Hi all, Brian from Instapaper here. There seem to be a number of comments expressing concerns about the acquisition, and I wanted to just jump in and offer to answer any questions you have about the acquisition. Based on the comments I've read below the main concerns seem to be that Instapaper will either be shutdown or materially changed in a way that effects the end-user experience. I can tell you that neither of t…

How do I get my data out of instapaper, if I don't want Pinterest using my reading history for targeting me or sharing with their data brokers?

Isn't that the kind of question you should have an answer to before signing up for a service, knowing that it could be sold to whoever down the road?

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#162

Post by corobo »

d_theorist wrote: post #103

Is anybody else mildly annoyed by this trend of announcing acquisitions as 'x is joining y'? What's wrong with saying that y has bought x?

The cynic in me is seeing it as an ass cover - "The product you like is joining us" vs "The product you like has sold out (also we bought data about what you like to read for use in our thing we don't really care about the product itself)"

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#163

Post by robbyking »

brians wrote: post #15

Bummer. I love and use instapaper, gathering articles for a few weeks to read at altitude. It's a great product, and I paid for a subscription these last years in the hopes that I could therefore continue to enjoy it. Now it's sold to Pinterest, one of the two sites I don't bother with links to—because I know Pinterest and Quora will require me to sign in rather than show me what they showed a search engine. What els…

The press release does specifically say:

> For you, the Instapaper end user and customer, nothing changes. The Instapaper team will be moving from betaworks in New York City to Pinterest’s headquarters in San Francisco, and we’ll continue to make Instapaper a great place to save and read articles.

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#164

Post by bthdonohue »

nroach wrote: post #154
bthdonohue wrote: post #96

Hi all, Brian from Instapaper here. There seem to be a number of comments expressing concerns about the acquisition, and I wanted to just jump in and offer to answer any questions you have about the acquisition. Based on the comments I've read below the main concerns seem to be that Instapaper will either be shutdown or materially changed in a way that effects the end-user experience. I can tell you that neither of t…

How do I get my data out of instapaper, if I don't want Pinterest using my reading history for targeting me or sharing with their data brokers?

You can export your articles at instapaper.com/user as always, however, we will not be using Instapaper users' personal data for any type of targeting or sharing off-service.

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#165

Post by corobo »

lsiebert wrote: post #64
elorant wrote: post #34

So what kind of value does Instapaper adds/will add to Pinterest? Will there be a pin it later functionality? I fail to see how Pinterest gains from such an acquisition.

Hmm... there are at least five possible acquisition benefits I can think of, beyond just the product and any specific product to product synergies. I'm speaking generally here, not about this specific acquisition. 1. Aquihiring may be cheaper then new hires overall, considering externalities. 2. The underlying tech may be useful. 3. The user base may be acquired. 4. the business relationships may be retained if they…

They also get to see what people go out of their way to read. Not a bad score for a site that is based on that sort of thing.

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#166

Post by oblio »

robbyking wrote: post #163
brians wrote: post #15

Bummer. I love and use instapaper, gathering articles for a few weeks to read at altitude. It's a great product, and I paid for a subscription these last years in the hopes that I could therefore continue to enjoy it. Now it's sold to Pinterest, one of the two sites I don't bother with links to—because I know Pinterest and Quora will require me to sign in rather than show me what they showed a search engine. What els…

The press release does specifically say: > For you, the Instapaper end user and customer, nothing changes. The Instapaper team will be moving from betaworks in New York City to Pinterest’s headquarters in San Francisco, and we’ll continue to make Instapaper a great place to save and read articles.

True, but that's what they always say. See: https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#167

Post by jads »

bthdonohue wrote: post #104
idlewords wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Delighted competitor here. How do you force your entire staff to relocate across the country without "materially changing the end-user experience"?

Hi Maciej, 2/3 of the staff members are moving to San Francisco. We all agreed to it before making the decision, no hands were forced. Also, big fan of your writing. Want to grab a coffee or beer now that I'm in SF? Brian

what about the other 1/3? Are they remaining in NY?

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#168

Post by ninja_to_be »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #137
bthdonohue wrote: post #96

Hi all, Brian from Instapaper here. There seem to be a number of comments expressing concerns about the acquisition, and I wanted to just jump in and offer to answer any questions you have about the acquisition. Based on the comments I've read below the main concerns seem to be that Instapaper will either be shutdown or materially changed in a way that effects the end-user experience. I can tell you that neither of t…

> Based on the comments I've read below the main concerns seem to be that Instapaper will either be shutdown or materially changed in a way that effects the end-user experience. I can tell you that neither of those are the plan for the short-term or long-term of the product, and I am personally looking forward to providing you with the same great service under a new owner. As a person who has been part of a small com…

Anecdotal evidence: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5381694 :)

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#169

Post by jasikpark »

leejoramo wrote: post #38
disposition2 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wallabag ( https://www.wallabag.org/ ) if you want self-hosted. Pinboard ( https://pinboard.in ) offers archiving for (I believe) $25 a year. Or Pocket ( https://getpocket.com/ ) which used to be Read-It-Later.

Thanks for the link to Wallabag, I had never heard of it. Looks very interesting. I use Pinboard, and pay for the archiving option. I even periodically request a tarball of the archive for my own backup. Pinboard archives the entire page, not just a readable version of the content. For archival and reference purposes, I like this. It would be nice if Pinboard also provided a readable option. In fact, a number of the…

One option is to have a browser that can render webpages in reading mode like safari on iOS. Hopefully chrome and Firefox have extensions as well.

Re: Instapaper is joining Pinterest

#170

Post by _quick_q »

paulcole wrote: post #161
nroach wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do I get my data out of instapaper, if I don't want Pinterest using my reading history for targeting me or sharing with their data brokers?

Isn't that the kind of question you should have an answer to before signing up for a service, knowing that it could be sold to whoever down the road?

Maybe. Better late than never, though?
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