5 ms·

If I am not mistaken, when Marc Andreessen was building the Mosaic browser (1993-ish) he and his co-founders contemplated the monetization model for the web. Si

If I am not mistaken, when Marc Andreessen was building the Mosaic browser (1993-ish) he and his co-founders contemplated the monetization model for the web. Since micropayments were not possible, the only obvious choice was ads. In this sense, reliance on advertisement as the primary way to monetize online businesses is as old as www.

sumtechguy 3y ago
I think it goes further back than that. You can find early radio broadcasts where the story was brought to you buy some brand. They would even work the brands into the stories sometimes.
- landhar 3y ago
  Indeed: > The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera
- lelanthran 3y ago
  Yeah. I believe that's where the term "soapies" originated. Shows originally brought to you by washing powder manufacturers.
  - KMag 3y ago
    G'day, mate? (I've never heard the term "soapies". Is it Australian slang? Having lived a decade in Hong Kong, I got exposure to a fair amount of Australian slang, and this fits the character.)
    - lelanthran 3y ago
      South African ... Although I was under the impression that soapies was an American word.
      - KMag 3y ago
        I've only ever heard "soap operas" or "soaps" in the Upper Midwest and East Coast. Let's blame Australia.
        lelanthran 3y ago
        I've found that quite a lot of South African slang is mistaken for Australian slang, while a South African accent is often mistaken for a British one[1]. [1] I've actually been asked, once, "You're English, right?", when I was in the states.
      - JohnFen 3y ago
        I've never heard "soapies" in my part of the US. It's "Soaps" or "soap operas" here.
        lelanthran 3y ago
        > I've never heard "soapies" in my part of the US. It's "Soaps" or "soap operas" here. After reading the other replies, I believe that it's not just your part of the US. I'm going to put this down in the TIL column - I always thought it was American slang, TIL I learned that it's not.
      - jprete 3y ago
        It’s pretty close even if it’s not actually an Americanism.
        Dylan16807 3y ago
        "ies" doesn't sound very American.
        sumtechguy 3y ago
        It may be. It could be a very regional item. Like soda vs pop. I personally never heard it until this thread. I have heard 'soaps'.
mistrial9 3y ago
> micropayments were not possible, the only obvious choice was ads this is completely specious .. source: present at the time
- literalAardvark 3y ago
  Please elaborate. Curious.
  - mistrial9 3y ago
    there are people here that can tell the stories better of course. MarcA was building the browser with other grad students and whomever, and they ultimately formed a company called Netscape. That product was called Netscape Navigator, and sold to consumers in a commercial software box, like a big book, similar to Adobe Photoshop and dozens of other huge programs in that day ("shrink wrap software"). Through the 1990s many Usenet users talked about ads on the Internet via usenet lists, everyone knew about AOL and their business model. The opinion among most coders in public was that ads on the Internet would "ruin it." Public surveillance on the scale that is common now, was a topic from comic books. etc
fragmede 3y ago
Micropayments, which are now possible if you accept cryptocurrency (specifically Solana) as the intermediary instead of Visa/MC, work. But how that would work is that you'd scroll past an article and pay for scrolling down. Instead of doing that, we put an ad in so when you're scrolling down, it costs the advertiser a micropayment and sends it to the ad agency (Google) at the expense of the viewer's time.
- kevin_thibedeau 3y ago
  How do I convert Flooz to Solana?
  - fragmede 3y ago
    Responding to the strongest plausible interpretation of what you said, as per the guidelines at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, it looks like you'd have to use something more mainstream (BTC/ETH/USDT) as the intermediary as https://flooz.xyz/trade https://flooz.xyz/trade won't convert Flooz directly to Solana. Getting money in and out of the Solana ecosystem is part of being able to do micropayments. USD to Solana (and back) is supported by Coinbase, however. My main point is that the code to make it so that scrolling down the article you're reading sends sub-cent amounts to the author is actually possible with today's technology, whereas it wasn't back in the 90's.

sumtechguy 3y ago

I think it goes further back than that. You can find early radio broadcasts where the story was brought to you buy some brand. They would even work the brands into the stories sometimes.

landhar 3y ago
Indeed: > The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera
lelanthran 3y ago
Yeah. I believe that's where the term "soapies" originated. Shows originally brought to you by washing powder manufacturers.
- KMag 3y ago
  G'day, mate? (I've never heard the term "soapies". Is it Australian slang? Having lived a decade in Hong Kong, I got exposure to a fair amount of Australian slang, and this fits the character.)
  - lelanthran 3y ago
    South African ... Although I was under the impression that soapies was an American word.
    - KMag 3y ago
      I've only ever heard "soap operas" or "soaps" in the Upper Midwest and East Coast. Let's blame Australia.
      - lelanthran 3y ago
        I've found that quite a lot of South African slang is mistaken for Australian slang, while a South African accent is often mistaken for a British one[1]. [1] I've actually been asked, once, "You're English, right?", when I was in the states.
    - JohnFen 3y ago
      I've never heard "soapies" in my part of the US. It's "Soaps" or "soap operas" here.
      - lelanthran 3y ago
        > I've never heard "soapies" in my part of the US. It's "Soaps" or "soap operas" here. After reading the other replies, I believe that it's not just your part of the US. I'm going to put this down in the TIL column - I always thought it was American slang, TIL I learned that it's not.
    - jprete 3y ago
      It’s pretty close even if it’s not actually an Americanism.
      - Dylan16807 3y ago
        "ies" doesn't sound very American.
      - sumtechguy 3y ago
        It may be. It could be a very regional item. Like soda vs pop. I personally never heard it until this thread. I have heard 'soaps'.

mistrial9 3y ago

> micropayments were not possible, the only obvious choice was ads this is completely specious .. source: present at the time

literalAardvark 3y ago
Please elaborate. Curious.
- mistrial9 3y ago
  there are people here that can tell the stories better of course. MarcA was building the browser with other grad students and whomever, and they ultimately formed a company called Netscape. That product was called Netscape Navigator, and sold to consumers in a commercial software box, like a big book, similar to Adobe Photoshop and dozens of other huge programs in that day ("shrink wrap software"). Through the 1990s many Usenet users talked about ads on the Internet via usenet lists, everyone knew about AOL and their business model. The opinion among most coders in public was that ads on the Internet would "ruin it." Public surveillance on the scale that is common now, was a topic from comic books. etc

fragmede 3y ago

Micropayments, which are now possible if you accept cryptocurrency (specifically Solana) as the intermediary instead of Visa/MC, work. But how that would work is that you'd scroll past an article and pay for scrolling down. Instead of doing that, we put an ad in so when you're scrolling down, it costs the advertiser a micropayment and sends it to the ad agency (Google) at the expense of the viewer's time.

kevin_thibedeau 3y ago
How do I convert Flooz to Solana?
- fragmede 3y ago
  Responding to the strongest plausible interpretation of what you said, as per the guidelines at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, it looks like you'd have to use something more mainstream (BTC/ETH/USDT) as the intermediary as https://flooz.xyz/trade https://flooz.xyz/trade won't convert Flooz directly to Solana. Getting money in and out of the Solana ecosystem is part of being able to do micropayments. USD to Solana (and back) is supported by Coinbase, however. My main point is that the code to make it so that scrolling down the article you're reading sends sub-cent amounts to the author is actually possible with today's technology, whereas it wasn't back in the 90's.