Comment by pclark | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pclark | Hacker News Reader

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I really don't get this point, no idea why people are so hung up on x company hiding content/adverts on the web.

WebMynd (also YC, incidentally) replaced Google.com adverts with content and Google never minded - WebMynd has lots more users and funding than Rapportive, and has been around for many many more years.

Also, when Google released their GMail gadgets marketplace, Rapportive was officially recommended on their blog, and I think it was one of the first on the scene.

Also, didn't that Paul guy who created GMail invest in them? I think he would have prodded the GMail team in his due diligence.

Given that GMail has millions of users, it's highly unlikely Rapportive will ever cause damage to whatever revenue GMail creates from adverts (its highly unlikely - sadly - that Rapportive will ever get, say, 5% of gmail users using Rapportive - the number is simply too big) - I imagine most of GMails revenue is from users paying for larger inboxes. Because they spend all their time in their mail client. Making them the dream Rapportive customer.

"Google shuts down service hundreds of thousands of GMail users love so they can make more money" doesn't sound like a very nice PR campaign. I suspect GMail is all about keeping users loving the Google, rather than monetizing.

I doubt Google will ever blog "hey guys, replace our adverts" because i think shareholders might raise eye brows, but turning a blind eye towards revenue in favour of delighted users sounds like a fair trade off.

Also if Google did make a move, it would cause so much press to flood towards Rapportive they'd be rather happy. (jinx)

I'd like to see people remarking how much users love Rapportive (search twitter) or how brilliant their customer service is, rather than what might cause Rapportive to fail.

What stopped rapportive from simply inserting their box in the dom in a way that they did not have to remove a revenue driver from the thing they are building their base on?

> "Google shuts down service hundreds of thousands of GMail users love so they can make more money" doesn't sound like a very nice PR campaign.

There's an element reminiscent of blackmail in there that I really don't like. Just because you can does not make it right.

Somehow this doesn't pass the smell test, I can't quite put my finger on it but if this wasn't sanctioned by google (which it very well may have been) then I find it an odd thing to do.

Launching an add-on service, fine, launching one to the detriment of the bottom line of the service you're launching it on, not cool.

If google would do something like this to a YC company we'd be nailing them to the highest tree.

"a revenue driver" seems to be the key phrase here to me. Specifically,

Gmail business model != Google Search business model

To me, killing Gmail ads doesn't necessarily kill the Gmail business model. I would think Gmail is a strategic tool in acquiring loyal Google product users (at a consumer scale) and in acquiring loyal Apps/Enterprise prospects and users (at an enterprise scale).

> What stopped rapportive from simply inserting their box in the dom in a way that they did not have to remove a revenue driver from the thing they are building their base on?

Oh come on, does anyone miss that box? it was a total waste of space, no one [1] clicked those adverts.

> If google would do something like this to a YC company we'd be nailing them to the highest tree.

To be honest this is the ~3rd post on Hacker News about Rapportive, and lots of the comments have been pretty negative. I think this is more a case of supporting a startup being innovative (and loved), rather than due to their background being YC.

The main rebuttal to your argument is that Rapportive have offered an application in the GMail market place that inserts content where Google wants it to go. They don't replace adverts in the Marketplace version.

I think Rapportive simply looked at GMail, thought where redundant space was - which was obviously the adverts - and put value there. Then, Google offered their gadgets stuff and Rapportive offer that as a solution too.

We can debate if this was evil or not evil of Rapportive to execute upon till the cows come home, but at the end of the day they've got into YC, they've raised a ton of money, they've delighted users, so who cares whose feathers they ruffle. You're in business, you're at war, you are not a not-for-profit (semi ironic accidental double negative?) peace loving nerd.

[1]: Sample size = 1 = me. I never clicked them, they were a joke. Adverts in email is dumb.

> I never clicked them, they were a joke. Adverts in email is dumb.

I actually did a few times when I got relevant advertisements - the only reason I stopped is because the ads seemed to get targeted and started standing out to me more, distracting me from email. Now when I see an ad I like, I open control+t a new tab open and google the service... hmm, that seems funny somehow. I might click ads again if there was a setting to not have my Gmail remember/optimize for me.

> but at the end of the day they've got into YC, they've raised a ton of money

I really don't see how that would make something 'right' if it wasn't right otherwise though.

"WebMynd (also YC, incidentally) replaced Google.com adverts with content and Google never minded"

I expect Google never minded, since WebMynd never got enough installs to bother with. I expect Rapportive to be similar.

Huh?

Rapportive got 10k installs in 24 hours just because an early tester happened to send one tweet about it. (And surely many, many more since then.) That doesn't happen unless you've got a hot product, so I don't understand the sentiment here.

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