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Bumptop acquired by Google

bumptop.com

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Re: Bumptop acquired by Google

#31

Post by ugh »

thehodge wrote: post #28
cmelbye wrote: post #12

Can't figure out why they're not just giving away the BumpTop Pro option. The crippled BumpTop free version is almost pointless with its limit of two sticky notes.

Well, the product has been out just over/under a year, If I'd paid for a digital product and less than a year later I'm told that I've got just a week to download it forever and there will be no further updates, I'd be pretty pissed. Then to find out something I paid (even just last week) for was then given free to everyone else..

Why would that annoy you? I’m always puzzled by that sentiment – it doesn’t hurt you in any way if others could download it for free, it doesn’t change anything for you. That’s pure jealousy, isn’t it?

Re: Bumptop acquired by Google

#32

Post by thehodge »

ugh wrote: post #31
thehodge wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the product has been out just over/under a year, If I'd paid for a digital product and less than a year later I'm told that I've got just a week to download it forever and there will be no further updates, I'd be pretty pissed. Then to find out something I paid (even just last week) for was then given free to everyone else..

Why would that annoy you? I’m always puzzled by that sentiment – it doesn’t hurt you in any way if others could download it for free, it doesn’t change anything for you. That’s pure jealousy, isn’t it?

Its the same feeling I get when I buy something and the next day its on sale for 50% off or when steam has one of its mega sales when I just bought the damn game..

or pretty much anytime I buy an apple product.

Re: Bumptop acquired by Google

#33

Post by brfox »

LiveTheDream wrote: post #29

...we've been acquired by Google...For the next week, we're keeping BumpTop Free available for download to give BumpTop fans one last chance to grab a copy. That is one hell of a great way to get a huge boost in downloads :) EDIT: link to download page http://eol.bumptop.com/download.php

The download is really slow right now, does anyone have an alternate download location?

Re: Bumptop acquired by Google

#34

Post by MWinther »

ugh wrote: post #31
thehodge wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the product has been out just over/under a year, If I'd paid for a digital product and less than a year later I'm told that I've got just a week to download it forever and there will be no further updates, I'd be pretty pissed. Then to find out something I paid (even just last week) for was then given free to everyone else..

Why would that annoy you? I’m always puzzled by that sentiment – it doesn’t hurt you in any way if others could download it for free, it doesn’t change anything for you. That’s pure jealousy, isn’t it?

Seems the human mind is wired to be sensitive to the concept of fairness. From what I understand it's been observed in chimps as well. At any rate, people see giving out things for free after they themselves paid for it as unfair, and most people react to that. It's not the logical reaction, as you're pointing out, but it is instinctual.

This isn't exactly the same case, but I believe it's close enough to be applicable: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inequity_aversion

Re: Bumptop acquired by Google

#35

Post by dave1619 »

jjonte wrote: post #13

A Bumptop-like interface would be pretty sweet on a tablet device running Chrome. This probably more a talent acquisition than a technology one - Bumptops's engineers have spent a lot of time thinking about UI metaphors and testing theories around them.

Bumptop on an Android tablet would be sweet.

Re: Bumptop acquired by Google

#36

Post by fnid2 »

thehodge wrote: post #32
ugh wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would that annoy you? I’m always puzzled by that sentiment – it doesn’t hurt you in any way if others could download it for free, it doesn’t change anything for you. That’s pure jealousy, isn’t it?

Its the same feeling I get when I buy something and the next day its on sale for 50% off or when steam has one of its mega sales when I just bought the damn game.. or pretty much anytime I buy an apple product.

I once worked for a product company that started out charging a lot for its product. They began to struggle finding new customers for their product because it cost so much. I said, "Why can't you just decrease the price?"

The reason was because they didn't want to anger their existing customer base who had already paid a lot.

Re: Bumptop acquired by Google

#37

Post by fnid2 »

Since we don't know what the price is, Google might have paid a sum for the product that is simply less than it would cost them to rebuild it themselves. Plus, they get the press for the acquisition and a talented, happy new member of the team.

If it would take them 3 engineers and a year to build bumptop and they paid $200,000 for it, then everyone wins.

Re: Bumptop acquired by Google

#38

Post by _delirium »

fnid2 wrote: post #37

Since we don't know what the price is, Google might have paid a sum for the product that is simply less than it would cost them to rebuild it themselves. Plus, they get the press for the acquisition and a talented, happy new member of the team. If it would take them 3 engineers and a year to build bumptop and they paid $200,000 for it, then everyone wins.

I agree how much they paid is important in evaluating the purchase (the less they paid, the more justifiable it'd be to buy it just for some talent and in the off chance some of the ideas/tech/IP turned out to be useful). But I doubt it's anything as low as $200k, because they had VC funding of a few million, and presumably the VCs wouldn't sign off on selling for a loss. This article estimates $40m, though they may have just pulled that number out of thin air: http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/05/02/google-purchases-bum...

Re: Bumptop acquired by Google

#39

Post by _delirium »

Gibbon wrote: post #25
chwahoo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you suggesting it hasn't?

Mostly they dump bucketloads of money into projects that disappear into blackholes, or morph into other products that are dubiously successful. As far as talent goes, the Dodgeball founders left, Jaiku founders left, Panoramio, Blogger and Feedburner founders left. That's off the top of my head, there's probably a lot more. Seems like an expensive and unreliable way to do bulk hires.

I don't entirely disagree, but I think some of the ones you mention weren't talent acquisitions. My guess is that, despite the founders leaving, Google is still happy with its Blogger and Feedburner purchases, and they at least sort of integrate into its larger web of services (and data collection).

Re: Bumptop acquired by Google

#40

Post by hkuo »

ThomPete wrote: post #10

This is quite puzzling to me. I played around with Bumptop a little bit when it came out but I have to say that I quickly removed it as I found it to add no value what so ever. If anything this seems more like a talent acquisition than a technology acquisition.

Agreed. It took me no more than a minute after installing to realize there was no use for this.

I'm not buying into 3D interfaces represented on a 2D screen. I don't believe 3D interfaces will succeed until they can be holographically projected around me a la District 9.

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