Founder of MiningCo -> About.com, which IPO'd. The allstar cast of investors is not surprising.
I like the idea of an inventory (like in the old text adventure games) for the internet, but I wonder if just having it be for a single object type is what users (versus what advertisers) want. Ideally you'd be able to keep anything in your inventory. This was part of the ultimate vision for Delicious a long time ago.
If they can connect with their audience, there are definitely people who will love this.
How do I know this? One summer I had the job of delivering ad mail. Most people are like me, didn't want it. But it was my job to deliver it, and I did. However there were some people who wanted it. You see they didn't know what they were doing with their weekend until they'd read the ads and learned where the sales were.
If they can connect with that audience, they could very well succeed. And sure, it may be a small portion of people. But it is a fraction that advertisers love to reach. You know, the people who like to cut out coupons. The ones who use groupon. The ones who are likely to actually buy if you offer them a deal.
It actually appears to be a real product, as opposed to an elaborate joke. Even after the initial feeling of nausea wore off, I'm still left wondering about what the market for this thing really is.
From what I've read (very little), ad clickers make up some fairly negligible portion of total internet users, and tend to be less educated or have impulse problems like compulsive shoppers, gamblers, etc. Making a complicated system to 'save' and re-visit your 'favorite' ads later on seems to not target this ad clicker market at all, as they'll most likely never look at an old ad again. And I really, really don't see this turning more people into ad clickers.
This might induce job creation for paid ad clickers in india, though.
One of my pet peeves is that Ads don't respect the back button. Sometimes, I hit the back button on Stack Overflow because the ad was interesting, but it's been rotated away.
Shouldn't this be solved by the browser? The back button behavior should be no different from if I were to switch from a new tab back to its parent tab.
Longest. Press release. Ever. It would be nice to read a review of the service rather than a press release.
That being said, I think one of the main hurdles a service like this will be user banner blindness. Many people have banner blindness and interactive advertisements don't seem to perform better than passive advertisements.
It seems like an idea with some potential. They charge the ads' publishers based only on clicks or impressions of saved ads. Saving and storing ads is free on both the users end (obviously) and the publishers end, which means ad publishers should be able to get started on the system without much risk.
I'd think the value to publishers would be in acquiring additional metrics about user interest in a particular ad, but I'm sure the pricing will be a critical piece of the puzzle.
They certainly have a number of well-known advisors and large investors (not that that is enough to predict success!), it'll be interesting to see if it takes off.
Part of it is the advertiser tunnel-vision thing I've seen where you get ad people saying things like "People will be eager to opt-in to our fantastic savings and they like to be aware of the newest prices and products. Hey... why is almost nobody opting in?"
It seems to me like it would work for very specific ad-types. Eg coupons, upcoming sales, promotional offers, etc. The thing is, 99% of internet ads are NOT this type of ad, but are instead a generic click-through to a site or service, in which case this idea is laughable at best.
There has been plenty of times i've seen an ad for a discount at Threadless (etc), or a promotional offer i'm interested in, where I refuse to click due to my geekish nature considering it taboo to do so, but at the same time wanting to remember that deal for later when i'm free to go check it out. I'd still rather just jot it down in notepad though.
Most ads are for branding, for sure, but that's because people don't want to waste time clicking on ads. If you take the time suck out of the equation, people might actually click and save the ads and offers they're interested in.
What I find most interesting is the potential for advertising to get better. Yeah, people have trained themselves not to look at the ads, but that's because the ads are usually pretty bad. If it really will be easy for people to click and save ads, the people who make the ads will want to make those ads ones you're gonna wanna keep.
Pretty ads : ) Useful ads, entertaining ads. Ads people might want to share with their friends. It could be pretty cool.
Got the impression the PR was written by someone in the advertising industry. They were practically slobbering all over themselves with lust over the magical deliciousness that is Internet advertisements.
Meanwhile, back on Main Street, and in Hacker's Haven, I bet most folks find them usually annoying or irrelevant noise, at best.
I don't see this working without some sort of incentive for consumers. I already know badges will be implemented, so that you can win virtual crap depending on the ads you see and collect. Coupons possibly will work, but then they need a way to redeem them.
This seems like the same thing as a company co-founded by a friend of mine: http://www.dropcam.com. Just wondering if you're aware of them and whether I'm missing something?
[+] [-] joshu|15 years ago|reply
Founder of MiningCo -> About.com, which IPO'd. The allstar cast of investors is not surprising.
I like the idea of an inventory (like in the old text adventure games) for the internet, but I wonder if just having it be for a single object type is what users (versus what advertisers) want. Ideally you'd be able to keep anything in your inventory. This was part of the ultimate vision for Delicious a long time ago.
[+] [-] astrofinch|15 years ago|reply
http://www.diigo.com/
[+] [-] btilly|15 years ago|reply
How do I know this? One summer I had the job of delivering ad mail. Most people are like me, didn't want it. But it was my job to deliver it, and I did. However there were some people who wanted it. You see they didn't know what they were doing with their weekend until they'd read the ads and learned where the sales were.
If they can connect with that audience, they could very well succeed. And sure, it may be a small portion of people. But it is a fraction that advertisers love to reach. You know, the people who like to cut out coupons. The ones who use groupon. The ones who are likely to actually buy if you offer them a deal.
[+] [-] cypherpunks01|15 years ago|reply
From what I've read (very little), ad clickers make up some fairly negligible portion of total internet users, and tend to be less educated or have impulse problems like compulsive shoppers, gamblers, etc. Making a complicated system to 'save' and re-visit your 'favorite' ads later on seems to not target this ad clicker market at all, as they'll most likely never look at an old ad again. And I really, really don't see this turning more people into ad clickers.
This might induce job creation for paid ad clickers in india, though.
[+] [-] languagehacker|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] patio11|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rsobers|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teyc|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] w1ntermute|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spicyj|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IChrisI|15 years ago|reply
I had a good laugh at this. An ad service so good customers will be begging to try it!
[+] [-] elbrodeur|15 years ago|reply
That being said, I think one of the main hurdles a service like this will be user banner blindness. Many people have banner blindness and interactive advertisements don't seem to perform better than passive advertisements.
[+] [-] Locke1689|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mmorris|15 years ago|reply
I'd think the value to publishers would be in acquiring additional metrics about user interest in a particular ad, but I'm sure the pricing will be a critical piece of the puzzle.
They certainly have a number of well-known advisors and large investors (not that that is enough to predict success!), it'll be interesting to see if it takes off.
Direct link to the site: http://www.adkeeper.com/
[+] [-] The_Sponge|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Andrenid|15 years ago|reply
There has been plenty of times i've seen an ad for a discount at Threadless (etc), or a promotional offer i'm interested in, where I refuse to click due to my geekish nature considering it taboo to do so, but at the same time wanting to remember that deal for later when i'm free to go check it out. I'd still rather just jot it down in notepad though.
[+] [-] addmein|15 years ago|reply
It's going to work great with deals and offers.
[+] [-] addmein|15 years ago|reply
Pretty ads : ) Useful ads, entertaining ads. Ads people might want to share with their friends. It could be pretty cool.
[+] [-] mkramlich|15 years ago|reply
Meanwhile, back on Main Street, and in Hacker's Haven, I bet most folks find them usually annoying or irrelevant noise, at best.
[+] [-] minalecs|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rgrieselhuber|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryanwaggoner|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryanwaggoner|15 years ago|reply