5 ms·

Imgur has a community. Tons of users that goes directly there to see funny images and GIFs. Yes, Google can create a infinite scalable image hosting overnight,

by slig 10y ago

Imgur has a community. Tons of users that goes directly there to see funny images and GIFs. Yes, Google can create a infinite scalable image hosting overnight, but creating a community is a lot harder.

galistoca 10y ago
And why would Google purchase a forum site for sharing funny images and GIFs?
- toxican 10y ago
  Why would they purchase a forum site for sharing funny cat videos?
  - galistoca 10y ago
    Because it's a monopoly. Come back when Imgur becomes the only (or one of very few) place on the web to share funny images and Gifs. Farewell.
    - rms_returns 10y ago
      Are you trying to imply that Youtube is a monopoly? Aren't there others like vimeo, etc.? Besides, there is nothing from technology perspective to make it a monopoly. All you need is a server rack and a bunch of web developers who can build such a site, right?
      - cname 10y ago
        Well, there's also massive scaling, which the average web developer isn't experienced with. Then there's creating a consistent experience across various devices and browsers. So, sure, anyway halfway competent developer could bang out a YouTube (or Facebook, etc) prototype in a few weeks, but going from there to a reliable, usable service at scale is something else altogether. You're going to need some project managers, SREs, sysadmins, front and back end web developers, programmers who know about video encoding, content experts, lawyers, etc...
      - galistoca 10y ago
        Youtube is a monopoly in a way Google is a monopoly. Just like how there's Bing and DuckDuckGo but most people use Google, most people use Youtube although some do use sites like vimeo. If you think it's so easy to build a site that competes with Google or Youtube you should go ahead and build one and overtake them. After all, nowadays everything is open sourced, you can even build your own search engine from scratch overnight.
        toxican 10y ago
        >Youtube is a monopoly in a way Google is a monopoly. So not at all unless you change what having a monopoly is.
  - x0x0 10y ago
    A guess: (and note they kept youtube a wholly owned subsidiary I think) they desperately had to make sure the Viacom lawsuit defense was well funded and aggressively defended or it would severely damage Google's business. Also, google has now had success building photo sites / photo products, but at the time of the youtube purchase, hadn't had much success building a video product. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viacom_International_Inc._v._YouTube,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viacom_International_Inc._v._Y....
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
niftich 10y ago
Creating communities is hard, but Google wants a unified 'Google' community, not multiple disparate ones -- just look at how they handled YouTube. Even if you throw in some machine learning to figure out if the user's looking at memes or gifs or porn, I can't imagine the marginal value of that data being of use to Google. It's essentially unmonetizable, which is why most image hosts disappear after a few years. Imgur was successful in avoiding that fate by pivoting to a community, but that community would be of no use to someone like Google.
- aaronbasssett 10y ago
  Especially as Imgur is already giving Google that information for free (from the Imgur source): <script type="text/javascript"> Imgur.Util.getGoogleTracker(); __ga('send', 'pageview'); </script>
  - dzdt 10y ago
    What makes you think this is free?
mmanfrin 10y ago
Imageshack was in the same position 5 years ago. And Photobucket 3 years before that. Image hosts go through a cycle of upending the tyrant and then becoming the villain.
- shostack 10y ago
  Free ones at least.
- alanh 10y ago
  Ugh. Don’t remind me. I used yfrog (Imageshack’s Twitter-friendly brand) for years, and now I have probably hundreds of old tweets with missing images. ◔̯◔
- walrus01 10y ago
  does anyone remember pbase.com for free photo gallery hosting, in around 2002? apparently it still exists with its same basic but functional UI.
  - discardorama 10y ago
    From their FAQ: Is PBase free? No.
    - walrus01 10y ago
      it used to be, a long time ago
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

by slig 10y ago

galistoca 10y ago

And why would Google purchase a forum site for sharing funny images and GIFs?

toxican 10y ago
Why would they purchase a forum site for sharing funny cat videos?
- galistoca 10y ago
  Because it's a monopoly. Come back when Imgur becomes the only (or one of very few) place on the web to share funny images and Gifs. Farewell.
  - rms_returns 10y ago
    Are you trying to imply that Youtube is a monopoly? Aren't there others like vimeo, etc.? Besides, there is nothing from technology perspective to make it a monopoly. All you need is a server rack and a bunch of web developers who can build such a site, right?
    - cname 10y ago
      Well, there's also massive scaling, which the average web developer isn't experienced with. Then there's creating a consistent experience across various devices and browsers. So, sure, anyway halfway competent developer could bang out a YouTube (or Facebook, etc) prototype in a few weeks, but going from there to a reliable, usable service at scale is something else altogether. You're going to need some project managers, SREs, sysadmins, front and back end web developers, programmers who know about video encoding, content experts, lawyers, etc...
    - galistoca 10y ago
      Youtube is a monopoly in a way Google is a monopoly. Just like how there's Bing and DuckDuckGo but most people use Google, most people use Youtube although some do use sites like vimeo. If you think it's so easy to build a site that competes with Google or Youtube you should go ahead and build one and overtake them. After all, nowadays everything is open sourced, you can even build your own search engine from scratch overnight.
      - toxican 10y ago
        >Youtube is a monopoly in a way Google is a monopoly. So not at all unless you change what having a monopoly is.
- x0x0 10y ago
  A guess: (and note they kept youtube a wholly owned subsidiary I think) they desperately had to make sure the Viacom lawsuit defense was well funded and aggressively defended or it would severely damage Google's business. Also, google has now had success building photo sites / photo products, but at the time of the youtube purchase, hadn't had much success building a video product. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viacom_International_Inc._v._YouTube,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viacom_International_Inc._v._Y....
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

niftich 10y ago

Creating communities is hard, but Google wants a unified 'Google' community, not multiple disparate ones -- just look at how they handled YouTube. Even if you throw in some machine learning to figure out if the user's looking at memes or gifs or porn, I can't imagine the marginal value of that data being of use to Google. It's essentially unmonetizable, which is why most image hosts disappear after a few years. Imgur was successful in avoiding that fate by pivoting to a community, but that community would be of no use to someone like Google.

aaronbasssett 10y ago
Especially as Imgur is already giving Google that information for free (from the Imgur source): <script type="text/javascript"> Imgur.Util.getGoogleTracker(); __ga('send', 'pageview'); </script>
- dzdt 10y ago
  What makes you think this is free?

mmanfrin 10y ago

Imageshack was in the same position 5 years ago. And Photobucket 3 years before that. Image hosts go through a cycle of upending the tyrant and then becoming the villain.

shostack 10y ago
Free ones at least.
alanh 10y ago
Ugh. Don’t remind me. I used yfrog (Imageshack’s Twitter-friendly brand) for years, and now I have probably hundreds of old tweets with missing images. ◔̯◔
walrus01 10y ago
does anyone remember pbase.com for free photo gallery hosting, in around 2002? apparently it still exists with its same basic but functional UI.
- discardorama 10y ago
  From their FAQ: Is PBase free? No.
  - walrus01 10y ago
    it used to be, a long time ago
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]