Scribd acquires SlideShare from LinkedIn | Hacker News Reader

Scribd acquires SlideShare from LinkedIn

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160 pointssimonebrunozzi46 comments

So what's the point of sites like scribd and slideshare? They host your slides and display them on a crappy js viewer that's almost always worse than the browsers built in PDF viewer. They also enforce lock-in by preventing you from exporting to a portable format eg. PDF. On top of that some of the sites (i know for a fact that scribd did it at one point) charge you for the privledge of viewing their users' content, or force you to add to their existing catalog by uploading whatever docs you have. I'm not sure why anyone would use them over dropbox or google docs.

I dislike them too but in case you’re really asking, the point is discoverability (content marketing for long tail topic), and analytics/lead capture + vanity metrics (number of views and downloads being a visible metric to any viewer). I’m puzzled it’s worth that much though.

Yes, it's all about discoverability. I don't normally look at my vanity metrics (as you correctly put it) but I definitely get views by just sticking stuff up there. And it's just an easy way to put presentation content up without any real effort. (Also easy embedding if I want to also put a link up on my blog.)

And conversely, if I'm looking for talks on a topic, it's a good place to search for them.

That said, Slideshare isn't a big deal to me one way or another. Especially if it looks like it's going to largely go behind a paywall, I'll just start self-hosting PDF and promote through other means.

its about what their clients and users use them for.

they have an audience that wants both. its not about what that audience could do, its never about what that audience could do.

> I'm not sure why anyone would use them over dropbox

the irony is that the same thing was said here about dropbox when it was introduced. this is really the icing on the cake to your comment. HN will never live this down.

> They also enforce lock-in by preventing you from exporting to a portable format eg. PDF.

I think this is the point of these services.

As a crude workaround, you can try...

curl -O http://image.slidesharecdn.com/PATH-TO-SLIDES[1-50]-1024.jpg && convert *.jpg PRESENTATION.pdf

...to save a local copy. You need to view the page source for the URL and adapt the bracketed number of slides, but I used this previously and it worked well enough. I won't log in or even create an account so this is how I do it instead.

Thank you for that. I use the following tactic to get out a presenation I need using Excel, Notepad, InternetDownloadManager.

What helps a lot, is copy and paste to an excel, like this Cell A1: http://image.slidesharecdn.com/PATH-TO-SLIDES Cell A2: 1 Cell A3: .jpg then pull the A2 till the number of the slides (e.g. 50) So you end up with 50 lines. Then copy all that 'table' and paste it to a Notepad Then Replace (Ctrl+H) the 'tab' to null Then Ctrl+A and Copy from the notepad Then paste it to IDM Download all Have a good life.

In your sheet, you can also do this cell A4:

=A1&A2&A3

Then just copy Column A4. Now you don't need to replace tabs or such.

Note: This will give you path like ...SLIDES1, SLIDES2..., SLIDES10 etc. If you want 1,2,10 to be 01,02,03; Use this instead of A2, TEXT(A2, "00")

Many years ago I reverse-engineered scribd's SWF-based PDF viewer, and was able to get a nearly-perfect conversion to PDF (since they were both vector formats). They seem to have recently replaced it with an HTML-based one and disabled the path to the SWF version, which makes such perfect conversion impossible --- you can rasterise a vector, but vectorising an image is never going to be perfect, especially an artifacted JPEG.

Searching now, it seems someone else has written a bit of public documentation (non-English) about it: https://github.com/jrlambea/scb_file_anatomy

I subscribe to scribd. My use case is finding impossible to find documents on the web. About once a month I'll need something; a marketing study, example spreadsheets, documentation, manuals, etc. Scribd seems to have vacuumed up a ton of things older site had that are no longer available on the web. The interface works for what I need it for.

Scribd has an excellent collection of modern sheet music. I don’t know if there is a place with a comparable collection.

I am scribd user. Recently, I discovered Libby -- free app from the public library (SFPL and NYPL for me). Libby is x10 better experience than scribd, is free and has all books you may find in the library.

The benefits of scribd is if you're an avid reader you can consume more than 3 books/audiobooks at a time, which is a restriction on Libby- requires you to return them etc.

For those interested: https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby/

Just figured I would post as I have been incredibly impressed with Libby.

Thank you, this looks amazing! I've missed perusing the shelves at my local library since the pandemic started — maybe this can serve as a replacement.

Thank you for this. I just got access to more than 40k books from my local library using Libby!

Cool app, but I think I'll stick to the regular old library checkout system where the only party tracking what I read are the feds, and even that is still one party too many. From its Privacy Policy: https://company.cdn.overdrive.com/policies/privacy-policy.ht...

"In addition to information that you may willingly submit to OverDrive, such as your library card number, school ID number, and/or email address, OverDrive may collect and store certain Personal Information and non-PII related to your interactions and use of our Services, including but not limited to, IP address, device type, device ID, operating system, library card number, Adobe ID, library name, lending history, holds, reading progress, bookmarks, highlights, notes, and online activity."

"We collect information from you in order to: - Personalize our Services to better reflect particular interests and preferences and in certain instances for remarketing."

"We retain information for as long as OverDrive deems necessary to provide the Services or as otherwise permitted by applicable law."

"Given that the Internet is a global environment, using the Internet to collect and process information necessarily involves the transmission of data on an international basis. Therefore, by using the Services, you acknowledge and consent to the transfer of your information outside your country of residence to any country where we have facilities or engage third parties."

I worked my first couple years of college as a clerk at the main campus library. I remember the librarian assigned to the Political Science department among others explaining that our circulation software had been deliberately configured to no longer store students' borrowing history after the PATRIOT Act was passed.

My city's public library runs the same software and now it has a My Reading History feature which in my city's implementation is disabled by default. If you log in to your library account online and it doesn't display your borrowing history you can have reasonable confidence your library isn't storing it, and would only be actively forwarding it to the feds if they had a warrant or NSL, etc.

It's disappointing but not surprising that the same stalwart approach to privacy isn't being enforced on the digital options. Librarians who care like the aforementioned one likely pushed back only to be told it was a necessary evil of the DRM that is "required" to make this possible, and if they don't like it there are still physical books.

But today we have alternatives like controlled digital lending that keeps the data in libraries' hands. If privacy-respecting digital options are important to you, you should definitely let your library know!

I feel privileged to have SFPL with all their electronic lending support, JSTOR access, etc. They even publish their own privacy explanation: https://sfpl.org/sites/default/files/2020-01/privacyinventor...

I used to buy tons of Kindle and physical books before I discovered Libby and now all I do is search the desired books on Libby through my Public Library cards (you can have more than one Library cards in Libby as some libraries such as San Francisco and Los Angeles just ask for you to be a California resident) and just read them on Kindle free. It also has superb easy-to-use UI and there is always a book available for me to borrow. Love it.

I've found Libby to be absolutely fantastic, smooth and stable on iOS, but the exact opposite on Android. The app jitters, freezes and reloads randomly.

I remember when SlideShare was acquired by LinkedIn. I had a logged-in linkedin cookie in my browser, and next thing I knew, there was a public slideshare profile page online with my full name and profile picture, that I never asked for, just from browsing a shared slide. Took a few rounds of angry emails to linkedin/microsoft to get that deleted.

Scribd are a bunch of scammers, I remember subscribing for their free trial and then cancelling just before the trial ended, they never cancelled and this went on for 5 months - they took that long to cancel it. Check out their reviews here https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.scribd.com - what would be the case course of action to follow up on something like this? Obviously it's not worth lawyering up for.

dispute .w your CC company

Another anecdote. I signed up for their trial and started using it on my iPhone. A few days later I couldn’t login, can’t reset password, nothing. Contacted support. My account was deleted completely due to fraud. I used my legitimate card matching my address. All kosher. I guess the trigger was because I use vpn on my phone. But the annoying thing is that there was no way to reinstate the account. They just irreversibly wiped it without notice. I asked what to do next and didn’t even get a reply... ok then. If you don’t want me as a customer, I don’t want to be one.

I love that someone at Microsoft managed to get some VC cash from Scribd for that garbage bonfire of a black pattern SEO spam fountain.

"Poured myself an early glass of wine. SlideShare sold off. Kamala Harris is VP nominee. I can simultaneously be sad at end of what I thought would be my legacy. And celebrate new beginnings :-)"

- Rashmi Sinha, Founder and ex-CEO of SlideShare

Ref: https://twitter.com/rashmi/status/1293290283602452480

What do you call this section of sites that you rue in your search results? Sites that everyone hates, and would never willingly use if not for resentable, possibly tech-illiterate people putting the odd thing on there? "bintech"? See also Researchgate.

I was always more of a SpeakerDeck fan, far less spam.

Back in the day, it was a very neat Web2.0, skeuomorphic kinda deal, and that style (which I frankly was a big fan of) persisted for a looong while until recently when they gave it a far more flat look.

The last thing that had me gravitating towards SpeakerDeck was that all the cool kids were using it, sharing their keynotes on twitter etc..., so a more impressionable, younger self felt the "coolness by association" factor.

Speakerdeck is far better UX, although they use HTTP/1 which means thumbnails and timeline previews are ridiculously slow.

Lots of pirated books on Scribd.

I thought that was the main point of it.

Notice found on slideshare.com:

"Scribd will begin operating the SlideShare business on September 24, 2020 As of this date, Scribd will manage your SlideShare account and any content you may have on SlideShare, and Scribd's General Terms of Use and Privacy Policy will apply. If you wish to opt out, please close your SlideShare account. "

I wonder what happens if the user closes her account. Does Scribd delete the content?

This shows how Terms and Privacy Policies are only good up until an acquisition. Then you get a brand new Privacy Policy.

Would be nice if a user could set a "self-destruct" order on her account, like a poison pill, so that in the event of an acquisition, the account is automatically closed. Automatic opt-out.

Does Slideshare let users download all their data before closing their account?

SlideShare is a thing of beauty: https://twitter.com/GoodSlides

Is scribd a pirate site? You can find out of print books there, but I don't see any indication that it is with the publisher's permission.

Ditto for their PDFs - I often find non-public datasheets and manuals there.

From my experience, I'm inclined to believe that it is a fairly benign pirate site. Wonder how much due diligence has gone into its various acquisitions.

Yes they are.

I really like the Scribd service and is an subscriber. Lots of good books there, both audio and regular ebooks. There is also lots of documents which I find useful, especially for more obscure stuff.

This is great news I think. Being a smaller org I hope Scribd innovates on the product more and doesn’t take it for granted. Much better owner-product fit here.

I detest having to login to LinkedIn to view a PPT, but I’m not sure this makes it much better.

I don't like when journalists upload documents to Scribd, since you need to sign up and upload something in order to download it. It's much nicer when they use documentcloud or self-host the docs.

I always stumble upon paywall when I try to read PDFs shared on Scribd. They always want me to subscribe. I just want to read PDF docs not books/ebooks or something.

Can't wrap my head around this deal

Can you think of some way that they can integrate these 2 products? Scribd is a content subscription site, SlideShare is essentially a PPT hosting+search. How can Scribd benefit from getting SlideShare?

* technology? I don't think so

* community? I don't know anyone who goes to SlideShare to find new content and comment on it

* content? If yes, how can free slides be included in Scribd's paid plans? Can they put all this content behind a paywall?

By making SlideShare a content subscription site?

I thought about it, but for now it's hosting for slides. If people have to pay for access - will slides' authors get paid? Will they continue to upload slides there knowing that potential readers can't access it for free? I think it would be hard to pull it off.

I would assume it would be free to upload--probably not paid except maybe for certain invited people but not sure how that would work. But paid for consumers, at least for value-add features? Or rolled into scribd subscription?

Don't have strong feelings. If it vanished tomorrow I would notice but wouldn't hugely care.

Could be SEO and linking? Each slide share page could have “related content on Scribd” links at the bottom and you’ve got millions of links to paid content all of a sudden and better ranking for that content on search engines.

They need to do something, anything, since Instagram with text pictures must be taking their customers.

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