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Google acquires BufferBox (YC S12)

business.financialpost.com

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Re: Google acquires BufferBox (YC S12)

#41

Post by tptacek »

OoTheNigerian wrote: post #39
tptacek wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh! Sorry, I stand corrected. BOOO, BUFFERBOX. BURN IN HELL!!

I do not think your response is appropriate. He just pointed out what seems to be a fact that the idea is not new. Maybe you expected him/her to be excited about the exit but that not being the case does not mean you should have repled with 'rude sarcasm'. You could have used the opportunity you used to respond to learn about competitors in the space however you chose this route. I have noticed several senior (by kar…

I am definitely part of a plot to homogenize HN.

Re: Google acquires BufferBox (YC S12)

#42

Post by htf »

Self-driving cars + robot arm + bufferbox = extremely cheap, fully automated delivery service. Add a robotic distribution center http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdd6sQ8Cbe0 and you have an automated Amazon competitor. If, on top of that, Google turns your Google account into a bank account, you'll be able to buy literally with one click. Google's dominance in mobile with Android will ensure that everyone has a Google bank account through which you can make most of your purchases. If you're a manufacturer, Google will take care of all your advertising for free, just so long as you give them a tiny cut of each sale. Google will be a trillion dollars company.

Re: Google acquires BufferBox (YC S12)

#43

Post by tptacek »

mtrimpe wrote: post #40
tptacek wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh! Sorry, I stand corrected. BOOO, BUFFERBOX. BURN IN HELL!!

You know we all love you, but this is out of line. Any one else than you would be hell-banned for this. We know you have FU money now but please remember that that expression is supposed to be figurative and not literal.

Awww. That's nice of you to say. I was kidding, though. I don't want Bufferbox to burn in hell, or anyone else for that matter.

Re: Google acquires BufferBox (YC S12)

#44

Post by eik3_de »

revelation wrote: post #9

This is a german Packstation: http://images.computerwoche.de/images/computerwoche/bdb/1841... Welcome to the future, America. I'd be happy to see what a startup under Google can do, but the competition isn't exactly asleep.

DHL "Packstation" started 10 years ago here in Germany, now those boxes are everywhere in populated areas. I was somewhat surprised that it isn't popular in the US.

Re: Google acquires BufferBox (YC S12)

#48

Post by xhedley »

The UK equivalent is CollectPlus http://www.collectplus.co.uk/faqs#local_shop_section . Instead of picking up goods from a locker in a public area, you pick up your parcel from a convenience store. The convenience store use their Paypoint terminal to identify you and your item and get the item from their stockroom back of house. The advantage for the convenience store over lockers is they don't waste front of house space on items which can be held back of house. Paypoint provides a terminal network across 24000 UK stores to take cash for utility bills, BBC TV licences, cellphone topups and so on. Collect+ is offered by 5000 of these stores, it piggybacks on the existing network which is obviously way more efficient than building a brand new network with extra hardware. I suspect this convenience store network approach rather than lockers would apply even better to countries which do e-commerce as "cash on delivery", for example Russia.

Re: Google acquires BufferBox (YC S12)

#50

Post by cdibona »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #14

I don't know about you but I want to see a buffer box setup where one of the lockers just says "I'm feeling Lucky" :-) Edit: and given a game of chance, and games in general. I wonder if anyone at Google has considered combining BufferBox with Ingress such that as you're playing the game if you 'win' a power up it is in the form of Google schwag in a locker, where the open code and which locker appears on your augmen…

That's actually a fairly awesome idea.
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