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"These days, most Gmail users never even glance at the ads filling the right-hand column." What sort of idiot writes that. I mean seriously. Do people really b

by points 16y ago

"These days, most Gmail users never even glance at the ads filling the right-hand column." What sort of idiot writes that. I mean seriously. Do people really believe that Google just serves up those millions of impressions for the hell of it with no payback? People look at them. People click them. Google makes a ton of money. Advertisers get a shedload of traffic. It's an absolute douchebag move to mess with other peoples content. Reminds me of the free wifi services that inject their own adverts at the top of every page on the internet, or rewrite affiliate links etc. I don't care if this plugin is useful or not, I don't want it to mess with the DOM.

waderoush 16y ago
Author of the original article here. I guess I should have said that I never glance at the Gmail ads and I have a hard time imagining why anyone would, as they are consistently irrelevant to me. As soon as I learned about a plugin that could replace the ads with something useful, I installed it. On the other point that seems to be getting commenters riled up -- "messing with other people's content" -- I think I am on Rapportive's side. I admit that I would be seriously annoyed if someone wrote a plugin that replaced my stories on Xconomy with, say, TechCrunch stories. But that's the risk of publishing on the Web, where the viewing platform is not ultimately under your control. And if people started using such plugin widely, it would be useful feedback for me -- it would mean that I should do something to make my own stories more interesting. Google should see Rapportive as a signal that something is missing in Gmail. Either they should provide more relevant ads, or they should copy (or buy) Rapportive.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  > I would be seriously annoyed if someone wrote a plugin that replaced my stories on Xconomy with, say, TechCrunch stories. But that's the risk of publishing on the Web How would you feel about someone writing a plug-in that left your content in one piece, removed the ads and used your site with all the associated expenses as a way to launch their product? And if google did decide to provide 'more relevant ads' how do you propose those will reach their viewer after rapportive has 'claimed' the space? Wouldn't it have been better to add the rapportive feature to the page somehow instead of removing a feature (ads) they deemed superfluous?
- points 16y ago
  "Google should see Rapportive as a signal that something is missing in Gmail. Either they should provide more relevant ads, or they should copy (or buy) Rapportive." That's ridiculous. How many people are using Rapportive? 0.00000001% of GMail users maybe? Do you know how much cash those ads generate for Google? Nope. Didn't think so.

by points 16y ago

waderoush 16y ago

Author of the original article here. I guess I should have said that I never glance at the Gmail ads and I have a hard time imagining why anyone would, as they are consistently irrelevant to me. As soon as I learned about a plugin that could replace the ads with something useful, I installed it. On the other point that seems to be getting commenters riled up -- "messing with other people's content" -- I think I am on Rapportive's side. I admit that I would be seriously annoyed if someone wrote a plugin that replaced my stories on Xconomy with, say, TechCrunch stories. But that's the risk of publishing on the Web, where the viewing platform is not ultimately under your control. And if people started using such plugin widely, it would be useful feedback for me -- it would mean that I should do something to make my own stories more interesting. Google should see Rapportive as a signal that something is missing in Gmail. Either they should provide more relevant ads, or they should copy (or buy) Rapportive.

jacquesm 16y ago
> I would be seriously annoyed if someone wrote a plugin that replaced my stories on Xconomy with, say, TechCrunch stories. But that's the risk of publishing on the Web How would you feel about someone writing a plug-in that left your content in one piece, removed the ads and used your site with all the associated expenses as a way to launch their product? And if google did decide to provide 'more relevant ads' how do you propose those will reach their viewer after rapportive has 'claimed' the space? Wouldn't it have been better to add the rapportive feature to the page somehow instead of removing a feature (ads) they deemed superfluous?
points 16y ago
"Google should see Rapportive as a signal that something is missing in Gmail. Either they should provide more relevant ads, or they should copy (or buy) Rapportive." That's ridiculous. How many people are using Rapportive? 0.00000001% of GMail users maybe? Do you know how much cash those ads generate for Google? Nope. Didn't think so.