4 ms·

Cynical take: Seems like an excuse for Shopify to add eye tracking to product pages for ad analytics

6177c40f 4y ago
Unfortunately it's stuff like this that's poisoned otherwise cool new tech for me. I can't help but wonder "how will this be used to advertise to me?"
- once_inc 4y ago
  One of the cooler takes of Bitcoin or "crypto" is that you can use native tokens to pay for visiting websites. A browser plugin combined with a lightning wallet for instance could enable a website to request a payment of any amount of Satoshis to view the site, or it will redirect you to a 402 error page. This generates a way of monetizing content without the need for ads or tracking.
  - koonsolo 4y ago
    But then you need something like Nano instead of Bitcoin, which has 0 fees. Ideal for such micro transactions.
  - dmtryshmtv 4y ago
    This is implemented in the Brave browser.
  - freddie_mercury 4y ago
    I'm not sure something that actively incentivises writers blather on endlessly, bury the lede, split their content over dozens of pages, slightly raising the price knowing that people will become densensitised to reading your per page costs, lock final review scores behind more expensive paywalls than the lower priced intro pages, and who knows what other dark patterns will be invented all while forcing me to make a determination every fifteen seconds on "is this worth the price they just asked?" is supposed to be a cool thing. If you thought recipe articles were terrible today, just wait until you have to pay 0.01 for their life story and then 0.03 for the ingredients only to discover that it will cost you another 0.15 for the actual instructions.
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
    Micropayments existed long before bitcoin and adding a blockchain mostly just makes them more awkward.
  - ETH_start 4y ago
    Crypto in general yes, but the lightning network specifically no. It's utterly impractical for most users, unless you use a third party hosted wallet, in which case almost all the benefits of crypto, like anti-lock-in and jurisdiction-agnoticism, go away. Crypto-powered micropayments could potentially massively boost revenue for content creators, including socially valuable platforms such as news sites.
  - CyberDildonics 4y ago
    Bitcoin has a throughput of 1 KB/s for the entire world, so it will never be used for micro transactions.
- theK 4y ago
  Or invade my privacy otherwise
  - VLM 4y ago
    Yes, it'll be used for workplace monitoring to generate easy to measure and rank KPIs for review time. Research indicates the ideal reading speed for corporate PR emails is 40 wpm and your teamwork KPI at review time will be stack ranked based on how close you move your eyes to the ideal 40 wpm reading rate.
- nottorp 4y ago
  > I can't help but wonder "how will this be used to advertise to me?" Or lie to you? VR storefront eh? Bet the product will look a lot better than it actually does in real life.
  - pmoriarty 4y ago
    If the VR is good enough, why would you even bother to visit it in real life?
    - nottorp 4y ago
      To see the actual product they're trying to sell? This is what TFA quoted as an application for the tech, virtual storefronts presumably for physical products.
  - peeters 4y ago
    I mean, that's true today. I'm sure you've seen plenty of shops egregiously misrepresenting the sizes of products via forced perspective or outright editing in images. If they were to upload a 3D model it would only get more difficult to mislead about the physical characteristics of the product.
    - nottorp 4y ago
      You think theyd Upload it unedited? :)
wraptile 4y ago
I'd imagine not many people are willing to give the webcam permissions to e-commerce shops.
- VLM 4y ago
  They will during the next lockdown when its give permission or don't order food online to eat.
bongobingo1 4y ago
> Look directly at the captcha, please read in a clear voice while drinking verification can. > Whoops, looks like you may have blinked or looked away! Please try again. If you have run out of verification cans, you can say "I love Cosco" to temporarily credit your account with one VCT while we dispatch a new box to your address.
mabbo 4y ago
I think it's important to remember that Shopify doesn't have a singular ad product. It's a platform to build a web store on, and merchants can add whatever they want to their shop, but Shopify doesn't collect any data across shops. That's the shop's data, not Shopify's. Bias: my team at Shopify helps merchants launch their shop and get their initial sales.
- hgsgm 4y ago
  Y'all are happy to spam people with onboarding messages at the email address that a customer gave you and you didn't bother to verify.
- jerojero 4y ago
  Does Shopify have a sales team? Does Shopify have a marketing team? What's a more likely and more powerful pitch that the marketing team could use to better increase sales of the Shopify platform given this tool they've developed: 1. You can make your stores more FUN! With this little funny tool. 2. You can have more accurate tracking data on what your user is looking at at every moment when they're browsing your website's catalog. Why not both, really? It's not in Shopify's interest to keep eye-tracking data, but it is in their interest to encourage people to use this feature because we all know this kind of data is a selling point for an e-commerce business. You really sound like the gun manufacturer that, after a mass shooting, says it's not the people that are flooding the market with guns that are the problem but the individual that did the shooting. This discourse might resonate with some, but not me I guess.
  - mabbo 4y ago
    I think it's disingenuous to compare an online store platform to a gun manufacturer. What I'm saying is that individual stores can track their customers however they like, but that there isn't an overall tracking system across all stores. Shopify's selling feature is that your data is your own. Your customer data is your own and not used by Shopify. That's the competitive advantage over Amazon, who will look at your sales data and use it to compete against you. It would be penny-wise but pound-foolish to do what you suggest.

Unfortunately it's stuff like this that's poisoned otherwise cool new tech for me. I can't help but wonder "how will this be used to advertise to me?"

once_inc 4y ago
One of the cooler takes of Bitcoin or "crypto" is that you can use native tokens to pay for visiting websites. A browser plugin combined with a lightning wallet for instance could enable a website to request a payment of any amount of Satoshis to view the site, or it will redirect you to a 402 error page. This generates a way of monetizing content without the need for ads or tracking.
- koonsolo 4y ago
  But then you need something like Nano instead of Bitcoin, which has 0 fees. Ideal for such micro transactions.
- dmtryshmtv 4y ago
  This is implemented in the Brave browser.
- freddie_mercury 4y ago
  I'm not sure something that actively incentivises writers blather on endlessly, bury the lede, split their content over dozens of pages, slightly raising the price knowing that people will become densensitised to reading your per page costs, lock final review scores behind more expensive paywalls than the lower priced intro pages, and who knows what other dark patterns will be invented all while forcing me to make a determination every fifteen seconds on "is this worth the price they just asked?" is supposed to be a cool thing. If you thought recipe articles were terrible today, just wait until you have to pay 0.01 for their life story and then 0.03 for the ingredients only to discover that it will cost you another 0.15 for the actual instructions.
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  Micropayments existed long before bitcoin and adding a blockchain mostly just makes them more awkward.
- ETH_start 4y ago
  Crypto in general yes, but the lightning network specifically no. It's utterly impractical for most users, unless you use a third party hosted wallet, in which case almost all the benefits of crypto, like anti-lock-in and jurisdiction-agnoticism, go away. Crypto-powered micropayments could potentially massively boost revenue for content creators, including socially valuable platforms such as news sites.
- CyberDildonics 4y ago
  Bitcoin has a throughput of 1 KB/s for the entire world, so it will never be used for micro transactions.
theK 4y ago
Or invade my privacy otherwise
- VLM 4y ago
  Yes, it'll be used for workplace monitoring to generate easy to measure and rank KPIs for review time. Research indicates the ideal reading speed for corporate PR emails is 40 wpm and your teamwork KPI at review time will be stack ranked based on how close you move your eyes to the ideal 40 wpm reading rate.
nottorp 4y ago
> I can't help but wonder "how will this be used to advertise to me?" Or lie to you? VR storefront eh? Bet the product will look a lot better than it actually does in real life.
- pmoriarty 4y ago
  If the VR is good enough, why would you even bother to visit it in real life?
  - nottorp 4y ago
    To see the actual product they're trying to sell? This is what TFA quoted as an application for the tech, virtual storefronts presumably for physical products.
- peeters 4y ago
  I mean, that's true today. I'm sure you've seen plenty of shops egregiously misrepresenting the sizes of products via forced perspective or outright editing in images. If they were to upload a 3D model it would only get more difficult to mislead about the physical characteristics of the product.
  - nottorp 4y ago
    You think theyd Upload it unedited? :)

wraptile 4y ago

I'd imagine not many people are willing to give the webcam permissions to e-commerce shops.

VLM 4y ago
They will during the next lockdown when its give permission or don't order food online to eat.

bongobingo1 4y ago

> Look directly at the captcha, please read in a clear voice while drinking verification can. > Whoops, looks like you may have blinked or looked away! Please try again. If you have run out of verification cans, you can say "I love Cosco" to temporarily credit your account with one VCT while we dispatch a new box to your address.

mabbo 4y ago

I think it's important to remember that Shopify doesn't have a singular ad product. It's a platform to build a web store on, and merchants can add whatever they want to their shop, but Shopify doesn't collect any data across shops. That's the shop's data, not Shopify's. Bias: my team at Shopify helps merchants launch their shop and get their initial sales.

hgsgm 4y ago
Y'all are happy to spam people with onboarding messages at the email address that a customer gave you and you didn't bother to verify.
jerojero 4y ago
Does Shopify have a sales team? Does Shopify have a marketing team? What's a more likely and more powerful pitch that the marketing team could use to better increase sales of the Shopify platform given this tool they've developed: 1. You can make your stores more FUN! With this little funny tool. 2. You can have more accurate tracking data on what your user is looking at at every moment when they're browsing your website's catalog. Why not both, really? It's not in Shopify's interest to keep eye-tracking data, but it is in their interest to encourage people to use this feature because we all know this kind of data is a selling point for an e-commerce business. You really sound like the gun manufacturer that, after a mass shooting, says it's not the people that are flooding the market with guns that are the problem but the individual that did the shooting. This discourse might resonate with some, but not me I guess.
- mabbo 4y ago
  I think it's disingenuous to compare an online store platform to a gun manufacturer. What I'm saying is that individual stores can track their customers however they like, but that there isn't an overall tracking system across all stores. Shopify's selling feature is that your data is your own. Your customer data is your own and not used by Shopify. That's the competitive advantage over Amazon, who will look at your sales data and use it to compete against you. It would be penny-wise but pound-foolish to do what you suggest.