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The problem with online ads

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40hz:
@mahesh2k - I'm not quite sure where you're getting half the stuff you're talking about in your above comment. But I'd like to politely suggest you're almost completely misreading and misinterpreting what's being said here. :)

One minor point. You also seem be merging Clive Thompson and his article with words from the people who do Pinboard. Clive Thompson isn't associated with Pinboard. He's writing an editorial and using Pinboard as his example of why a paid service is a better and more workable approach than ad supported business models.
 8)

mouser:
I think a helpful way to read this debate is that this article is not addressing at all the issue of truly free/opensource services and products that are released without any one trying to make a business out of it.

It's really just drawing attention to the fact that we are pretty deep in the rabbit hole now where almost everything is trying to be (or appear to be) free to users, while setting up this secondary system for trying to make money from their users by advertising to them (or selling statistics on their behavior or finding ways to get them to buy other stuff, etc.).

And it's trying to say that perhaps things have gone too far in this direction, and it's time to consider the much more straightforward concept that if you are going to try to make money from your users, maybe the cleanest way to do so is to charge them for the service you are providing -- a concept that's starting to seem novel in 2012..

Again -- this is not knocking open source or free software.  It's simply saying, if you're going to try to make money from your users -- maybe it's better to do it directly.

mahesh2k:
I'm relating Clive's article with this and this and the stuff that I posted in previous post. Pinboard owner knocked not only free software but freeware model of making money. I agree that every revenue generation has it's set of cons. But I have to disagree with clive's point quoted in first post of this thread. He's assuming a lot in his posts regarding paid models. Web is usable not because of paid models but because large part of web is free or ad-plastered. I disagree with the people who think only one model answers everything, in this case 'Paid model'. Free model, ad-plastered model, paid model all play their roles to run better web based startups. In fact there are people who do much better in free model compared to paid model, example - Wordpress and countless products which are free and their creators are making money much more than pinboard owner. They don't advertise with slogan - "X competitor product is paid service, still can't guarantee privacy and so you should choose my service". Another point related to privacy - not a single paid service on web can't guarantee it, pick any random top brand and they have security issues, leaked user data issues, bugs and whatnot. Paid service also collects personal data and monitors user behavior just like any other service on web, look around we have call centers set up to annoy people based on personal information. So clive fails to explain that part as well.  

Assume "0% Free or Ad based" service in the following chain and try to see what point clive is trying to put in that article.

ISP(Paid, fair and acceptable, no objection on that front) - -  > OS (Paid)  - - > Browser (Paid) -  > Mail (Paid)  - > Social network (Paid) - > Send Friends request (Paid)  - > Talk time (Paid) - > Share Stuff [ Images Sharing ( Paid) - > Video Sharing (Paid) - > Video View (Paid) - > ] -  > Blogs (Paid) - > Wikipedia (Paid) - >  - > Dropbox/spideroak (Paid) - > Donationcoder (paid) - > Forums (paid) - > Q&A (Paid) - > [ Insert anything else (hmm, paid)] .

Check the quoted point in first post of this thread that says "The craptacular design! ", Where do you see web with this model of Clive in 2032?


Okay, that's all I can say for now. :P

mouser:
Fair points mahesh  :Thmbsup:

Different approaches are suited for different situations.

40hz:
Fair points mahesh  :Thmbsup:

Different approaches are suited for different situations.
-mouser (February 27, 2012, 10:49 AM)
--- End quote ---

Sorry. I'm still a little lost. While these may be "fair points" I don't really think they're talking about the same things Clive Thompson's article is talking about - unless you want to allow for a large amount of (unjustifiable IMO) "reading into" what was actually said.

But so be it. This is what forum discussions are for.  :)

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