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Comment by brey | Hacker News Reader

  Pingjam was a monetization solution for Android app developers
  ...
  Google Play kicked out over 1,000 apps that worked with us from their app store

this whole article paints Google in the usual HN-friendly light of 'big bad unapproachable Google being evil', without giving any detail on what this 'monetization solution' actually was, and why Google wasn't being entirely reasonable to kick it to the kerb.

edit: yeah, thought so. they push contextual ads based on who you're calling. no surprises that got killed.

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I've experienced enough about Google to believe that their experience could be exactly what was described.

On the other hand looking at links like https://angel.co/pingjam I have to admit that they were doing something that was going to feel a lot like privacy invasion. Knowing who you were calling, and using that to target relevant ads?

Facebook is now scanning SMS on Android, ostensibly for 2 factor authentication, but it's easy to see them mining the data for advertising purposes. I wonder how Google will react to that.

They took a course of being completely dependent on the benevolence of Google. That is a big risk, but maybe more common than you would think. I mean, Apple can kick your app out of the market, yet a lot of startups depend on the app store.

Pingjam seemed to have gone the extra mile, by seeking close cooperation with Google, also in terms of EULA. I can imagine them feeling hard done-by Google.

I must admit am not in any position to judge the Google license agreement and their possible non-compliance.

Their website is still up http://pingjam.com if you want to see what it was.

The site doesn't seem to say a thing about what they actually did to make money (the AngelList description does, though).

It does if you dig deeper in the website. Looks like pulling info from caller ID and using that for monetisation... which is icky, as far as I'm concerned.

Almost as bad as pushing contextual ads based on what you are searching for, eh?

Those ads are confined within Google when you are searching. This is an ad that pops up when you're not using the app which to me sounds more like a classic toolbar add-on type of deal.

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