This is great and much needed. However as it's from Google I will never use it. Sorry, Google has about the same reputation as Microsoft circa 2000 at this point.
Google Contributor
71–80 of 201 posts
Re: Google Contributor
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
>How hard is it for a site to setup a simple paywall linked to a low-cost payment processor? Well, it depends on what the cut is -- I don't know and the linked page doesn't say. But news organizations that are good at reporting may not have much expertise in technology tasks like this. (By way of background, I've worked for a bunch of them before founding http://recent.io/ ) Also I don't believe Google Contributor is…
I don't think Contributor is intended to directly benefit sites at all. If you use Contributor, the site receives $0.00136* and a blank ad is shown, paid for by you. If you don't use Contributor, the sites receives $0.00136 and an Initech ad is shown, paid for by Initech. It will make no direct difference in revenue for the site, but hopefully they can get indirect benefits from people being less inclined to use ad b…
How much of that revenue did Google take?
Is it a 80/20 revenue split or what?
My point is the middle-man must be paid but if there is no middle-man you keep 100% of the profit.
Re: Google Contributor
#73This severely breaks down when you find a site you disagree with. Say you go on some anti-vaccines blog just to find after reading through a bunch of articles that they are a part of this program. Can you take your money back? Or what about a political campaign site for your rival? Or the Westboro Baptist clan?
The same problem exists with ads, though. By browsing a site with ads, you're supporting them.
Re: Google Contributor
#74I get some warm-and-fuzzy feelings when I first see this (and signed up for the waitlist), but it also makes me a bit uncomfortable with what this implies. Has anybody else here seen Black Mirror, "Fifteen Million Merits"?
The status quo is living with harrassment, in the form of advertising.
Signing up for this system is implicitly endorsing that the harrassment is justified. It feels something like being extorted. (Or, perhaps, negotiating with terrorists)
Re: Google Contributor
#75This severely breaks down when you find a site you disagree with. Say you go on some anti-vaccines blog just to find after reading through a bunch of articles that they are a part of this program. Can you take your money back? Or what about a political campaign site for your rival? Or the Westboro Baptist clan?
The same problem exists with ads, though. By browsing a site with ads, you're supporting them.
Only in a very, very small and indirect way. And you can solve that problem by installing and ad blocker and whitelisting sites.
Re: Google Contributor
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
>How hard is it for a site to setup a simple paywall linked to a low-cost payment processor? Well, it depends on what the cut is -- I don't know and the linked page doesn't say. But news organizations that are good at reporting may not have much expertise in technology tasks like this. (By way of background, I've worked for a bunch of them before founding http://recent.io/ ) Also I don't believe Google Contributor is…
I don't think Contributor is intended to directly benefit sites at all. If you use Contributor, the site receives $0.00136* and a blank ad is shown, paid for by you. If you don't use Contributor, the sites receives $0.00136 and an Initech ad is shown, paid for by Initech. It will make no direct difference in revenue for the site, but hopefully they can get indirect benefits from people being less inclined to use ad b…
I don't think that's how it works. It sounds like the CPM for a particular user's visits is determined by that user -- by the amount they choose to contribute per month and the number of pages on participating sites they view.
So, depending on a site's audience and content, it seems like they could end up with a CPM that is much higher (or lower) than with ads.
Re: Google Contributor
#77On the surface this sounds great, but I also get the feeling this is solving a problem that doesn't exist. The billions of website that exist on the web should be proof of that.
Re: Google Contributor
#78Nah. Google will abandon this just like nearly everything they make.
Re: Google Contributor
#79Maidsafe (when it comes to fruition) will have rewards for publisher built into the system, based on usage of the app...
Re: Google Contributor
#80Personally I prefer the Bitcoin version of this, autotip. It is a Chrome browser extension that automatically tips sites Bitcoin when you visit it.
That way I essentially am just tipping sites that I want to visit as I visit them. You can also blacklist sites, set tip amounts, etc.
https://priestc.github.io/Autotip/
On the development side implementation was very easy. All it takes is a meta tag with a bitcoin address and you're good to go. I built it into a social blogging site I've been working on, so that when you visit an article the bitcoin address used for tipping is the author's. Here's a post I wrote explaining it: