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Comment by adrianwaj | Hacker News Reader

They could also make money from them using micropayments. Free if there's a delay. Then split proceeds with creators.

Can we not do things for fun anymore?

Only for a while, then we want tips when the fun wears off. Imagine Google Reader was still going because the maintainers got the most micropayment tips, and thus the best raises/promotions, while also having the most fun at work. What do you think?

Google Reader was shut for the same reason many things was shut by Google. However, once a piece of software works and is fully featured which Reader was, you don't need endless updates, just security and to work with the latest version of an OS which isn't a significant time lose.

Raises and promotions should never be correlated to busiest staff member.

Would that money be even remotely comparable to the engineering time spent on this, especially compared to the money they're making on ads?

Point taken, but - I think it's a good way to start a micropayment culture. It's like putting numbers up on houses - they're just cheap digits but all of a sudden people can receive mail. Actually, YT micropayments would be like having a PO box.

"money making ads" I'm surprised they haven't made their own coin to go with that. Perhaps a new coin should be part of that micropayment culture. Look what happened with Binance coin because so many people were using the site already and they could roll one out.

In reality, they could have made so much money from Gmail account recovery too. All of Google's shelved projects - maybe all they need is an efficient micropayment system to slap on whatever they put out - Google Reader included.

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