6 ms·

I think Google will be shocked at how little usage this gets. Having founded a couple of ventures aimed at helping people make money online, I can conclusively

I think Google will be shocked at how little usage this gets. Having founded a couple of ventures aimed at helping people make money online, I can conclusively say that it is much easier, for example, to convince someone to play a casual game online and waste their time than to convince them to join a site where they may be paid for their time. For whatever reason, it is incredibly difficult to get talented people interested in new ways to connect with people that will pay for those talents.

gz5 13y ago
Very difficult but will Google put this in front of enough people, enough times, in enough different ways to build a tangible niche? Google different than most of us in that they don't need to directly make money from this effort. The WebRTC analytics generated alone are likely enough to justify the costs.
bleakcabal 13y ago
Sometimes you just want/need to unwind and do something else even if you could be making a little more money. Also doing paid stuff outside of work can feel like more work, wasted time might be necessary recreation time.
pappyo 13y ago
Yeah, and their pricing model isn't helping them either. It's a tough sell to get professional experts to hand over almost a quarter of their earnings before the taxman cometh. Maybe if Google didn't fail pricing 101, they'd know something like 18.25% is more palatable to a consumer than a big round number like 20.
- japhyr 13y ago
  Do you have any sense what a reasonable fee would be? I am a math teacher, and I've seen math teachers make $80+/hr tutoring high school and college students. I'd consider trying this platform out, because it would take little effort to get started, and I'd have nothing to lose. I'd be a little frustrated to see Google take 20% right off the top. But I am assuming that Google has the infrastructure to roll this out without needing to take 20% to maintain profitability on this. Does anyone have a sense of a reasonable fee for this service?
- bishnu 13y ago
  Yeah I guess this is why app stores never took off, with their Draconian 30%-off-the-top fee model.
  - MatthewPhillips 13y ago
    I wouldn't use app stores as a positive example of what Helpouts could do for the services industry. There aren't many companies successfully making money selling software in app stores. And certainly no one is doing gangbusters.
  - mason55 13y ago
    The difference being that I can sell the time I'd spend on Helpouts as consulting time at $x per hour. There was no alternative to the appstore if you wanted to reach mobile devices.
    - r00fus 13y ago
      Well, there was - web apps, but discovery/market outreach, payments management, versioning and distribution are all issues that the App Store assisted with/handled thus warranting most of the 30% cut. In this case, there are other forums and other ways to get "helpouts" not to mention if it really does take off, expect other major sites to launch their own helpouts efforts and ignore Google's offerings.
- erichurkman 13y ago
  Well, I'd rather Google set a price, however unreasonable, at the beginning. Free services provided by Google have a tendency to be taken out back like Old Yeller, no matter how devout a following.
- mikeash 13y ago
  If friction is low, it seems like a decent deal to me. Finding clients and setting up contracts takes up a lot of time, and if (big if) Google can streamline that for these things, that would easily be worth 20%.
melling 13y ago
You know it's pretty easy to say something won't work. Most of the time you will be right. However, consider there are lots people who create Podcasts, videos on YouTube, and sites like skillshare.com who might be interested in this. Finally, it's a lot more interesting to figure out ways to make things work than be "The Critic." http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7-it-is-not-the-critic-who-counts-not-the-man http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7-it-is-not-the-critic-who-c...
VikingCoder 13y ago
Oh ye of little imagination. I go to Google Search, and I type in some phrase. The search results happen to not really have any great answers. And down at the bottom of the page is this nice little link that says, "Can't find what you're looking for? Care to ask an Expert?" Out of curiosity, you click it, and it takes you to the Helpouts page. If they allow people to set their price at $0, some people will just do it out of altruism / reputation. (Think of Stack Overflow karma and badges.) I could picture Open Source projects using $0 Helpouts, to encourage use - in helping new users configure, in helping users solve problems, in helping developers contribute. It'd be like an IRC channel. Especially if we can invite multiple people to the Helpout, like we can with Hangouts. I can see businesses using it, as a way to reach Customer Support, when another business or high-end consumer wants to ask a question that they're willing to pay for. EDIT: Picture this, "Carmack Thursdays." On Thursday evenings, John Carmack agrees to do $1000 Helpouts, and donates all of the proceeds to a charity of his choice. Linus Torvalds, Bruce Schneier, Jim Carrey, Ron Paul doing fundraising for a campaign, Markus Persson, Jeff Atwood, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, James Lipton, Tyra Banks, Kevin Smith, Venture Capitalists like the Y-Combinator folks... If they get the right people to do Helpouts, it could be huge. Like a one-on-one Reddit Ask Me Anything, where you pay to get backstage passes.
- ngoel36 13y ago
  https://clarity.fm/home https://clarity.fm/home
  - VikingCoder 13y ago
    I'm sure I can find competitors for literally everything Google does. Google tends to do many of them better than their competition.
    - Ecio78 13y ago
      Yes, then the competitors are forced out of market and close their activities.. and then Google shut down the service.. and then new competitors launch replacement services and then...
slothguy 13y ago
It's not hard to get professionals to offer their services online. These sites already do it. http://www.wello.com http://www.wello.com (health& fitness) , http://betterfly.com http://betterfly.com (everything) http://www.popexpert.com http://www.popexpert.com (coaching)- http://www.takelessons.com http://www.takelessons.com (music) The hard part is getting clients that are willing AND able(have the tech/connection) to use the platform. Google will not be there to offer the support that these connections need, and it will fail unless support is outsourced. Almost all of these sites offer both online and offline(in-person) to survive. These sites might actually do better when Google brings live-online-instruction to the public's attention, and then they go to one of the previous companies that actually cares about supporting the professional and client/student.
samstave 13y ago
Maven.co's entire business model is "to get talented people interested in new ways to connect with people that will pay for those talents."
magl3v 13y ago
This service could actually be very useful for SMBs and freelancers. The only reason why your seeing it today is because George Arison (http://www.linkedin.com/in/georgearison http://www.linkedin.com/in/georgearison) leaked it to the press while it was it private beta testing. But don't worry, we found him and fire him right away.

gz5 13y ago

Very difficult but will Google put this in front of enough people, enough times, in enough different ways to build a tangible niche? Google different than most of us in that they don't need to directly make money from this effort. The WebRTC analytics generated alone are likely enough to justify the costs.

bleakcabal 13y ago

Sometimes you just want/need to unwind and do something else even if you could be making a little more money. Also doing paid stuff outside of work can feel like more work, wasted time might be necessary recreation time.

pappyo 13y ago

Yeah, and their pricing model isn't helping them either. It's a tough sell to get professional experts to hand over almost a quarter of their earnings before the taxman cometh. Maybe if Google didn't fail pricing 101, they'd know something like 18.25% is more palatable to a consumer than a big round number like 20.

japhyr 13y ago
Do you have any sense what a reasonable fee would be? I am a math teacher, and I've seen math teachers make $80+/hr tutoring high school and college students. I'd consider trying this platform out, because it would take little effort to get started, and I'd have nothing to lose. I'd be a little frustrated to see Google take 20% right off the top. But I am assuming that Google has the infrastructure to roll this out without needing to take 20% to maintain profitability on this. Does anyone have a sense of a reasonable fee for this service?
bishnu 13y ago
Yeah I guess this is why app stores never took off, with their Draconian 30%-off-the-top fee model.
- MatthewPhillips 13y ago
  I wouldn't use app stores as a positive example of what Helpouts could do for the services industry. There aren't many companies successfully making money selling software in app stores. And certainly no one is doing gangbusters.
- mason55 13y ago
  The difference being that I can sell the time I'd spend on Helpouts as consulting time at $x per hour. There was no alternative to the appstore if you wanted to reach mobile devices.
  - r00fus 13y ago
    Well, there was - web apps, but discovery/market outreach, payments management, versioning and distribution are all issues that the App Store assisted with/handled thus warranting most of the 30% cut. In this case, there are other forums and other ways to get "helpouts" not to mention if it really does take off, expect other major sites to launch their own helpouts efforts and ignore Google's offerings.
erichurkman 13y ago
Well, I'd rather Google set a price, however unreasonable, at the beginning. Free services provided by Google have a tendency to be taken out back like Old Yeller, no matter how devout a following.
mikeash 13y ago
If friction is low, it seems like a decent deal to me. Finding clients and setting up contracts takes up a lot of time, and if (big if) Google can streamline that for these things, that would easily be worth 20%.

melling 13y ago

You know it's pretty easy to say something won't work. Most of the time you will be right. However, consider there are lots people who create Podcasts, videos on YouTube, and sites like skillshare.com who might be interested in this. Finally, it's a lot more interesting to figure out ways to make things work than be "The Critic." http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7-it-is-not-the-critic-who-counts-not-the-man http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7-it-is-not-the-critic-who-c...

VikingCoder 13y ago

Oh ye of little imagination. I go to Google Search, and I type in some phrase. The search results happen to not really have any great answers. And down at the bottom of the page is this nice little link that says, "Can't find what you're looking for? Care to ask an Expert?" Out of curiosity, you click it, and it takes you to the Helpouts page. If they allow people to set their price at $0, some people will just do it out of altruism / reputation. (Think of Stack Overflow karma and badges.) I could picture Open Source projects using $0 Helpouts, to encourage use - in helping new users configure, in helping users solve problems, in helping developers contribute. It'd be like an IRC channel. Especially if we can invite multiple people to the Helpout, like we can with Hangouts. I can see businesses using it, as a way to reach Customer Support, when another business or high-end consumer wants to ask a question that they're willing to pay for. EDIT: Picture this, "Carmack Thursdays." On Thursday evenings, John Carmack agrees to do $1000 Helpouts, and donates all of the proceeds to a charity of his choice. Linus Torvalds, Bruce Schneier, Jim Carrey, Ron Paul doing fundraising for a campaign, Markus Persson, Jeff Atwood, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, James Lipton, Tyra Banks, Kevin Smith, Venture Capitalists like the Y-Combinator folks... If they get the right people to do Helpouts, it could be huge. Like a one-on-one Reddit Ask Me Anything, where you pay to get backstage passes.

ngoel36 13y ago
https://clarity.fm/home https://clarity.fm/home
- VikingCoder 13y ago
  I'm sure I can find competitors for literally everything Google does. Google tends to do many of them better than their competition.
  - Ecio78 13y ago
    Yes, then the competitors are forced out of market and close their activities.. and then Google shut down the service.. and then new competitors launch replacement services and then...

slothguy 13y ago

It's not hard to get professionals to offer their services online. These sites already do it. http://www.wello.com http://www.wello.com (health& fitness) , http://betterfly.com http://betterfly.com (everything) http://www.popexpert.com http://www.popexpert.com (coaching)- http://www.takelessons.com http://www.takelessons.com (music) The hard part is getting clients that are willing AND able(have the tech/connection) to use the platform. Google will not be there to offer the support that these connections need, and it will fail unless support is outsourced. Almost all of these sites offer both online and offline(in-person) to survive. These sites might actually do better when Google brings live-online-instruction to the public's attention, and then they go to one of the previous companies that actually cares about supporting the professional and client/student.

samstave 13y ago

Maven.co's entire business model is "to get talented people interested in new ways to connect with people that will pay for those talents."

magl3v 13y ago

This service could actually be very useful for SMBs and freelancers. The only reason why your seeing it today is because George Arison (http://www.linkedin.com/in/georgearison http://www.linkedin.com/in/georgearison) leaked it to the press while it was it private beta testing. But don't worry, we found him and fire him right away.