by Kevin (kevin at urspin dot com) on 04.06.07 at 15:37
For those who don't know, I've spent most of my career building technology for Marketing and Advertising, so I have a good understanding of the industry. Unfortunately, there are bottom-dwellers of said industry who are constantly looking for ways to make a quick buck off of any new concept. A while back, I was consulting for a company that was losing revenue because of the pop-up blocking toolbars. Their solution was to build technology that popped around the tool bar. I knew that I could do it, but I couldn't understand their thinking. If a user explicitly says they don't want something, how happy are they going to be when you then force it down their throat? I simply shook my head and walked away.
As I was browsing the web last week, I came across a site that brought back memories of the aforementioned experience: socialpay.com . Take a look at the guy next to the CRT monitor and beige tower (circa 1999). Doesn't he look happy? Apparently, you can be happy too - just add one of their Advertising Widgets on your blog. This type of "Pay-Per-Widget" concept is one of many reasons we created Spinlets instead of Widgets (more to come later). Simply put, we don't want to be associated with this practice. Unfortunately, I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg. Web Widgets are a great addition to web 2.0. But, we (as a community) need to take a stand against this practice or it will do to Widgets what SPAM did to email, what Ad-Ware / Spy-Ware did to toolbars, and what "Pay-Per-Blog" is doing to the blogosphere. The last thing I want to see is Widgets being shunned because someone decided that lining their pocket with an extra nickel was more important than user experience.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with someone posting unobtrusive Google AdSense listing or tasteful sponsorships like Mashable. Let's face it, someone has to pay for servers and real bloggers contribute positively to the web 2.0 community so why shouldn't they get paid? What concerns me is the fact that so many lower-tier interactive agencies seem to completely disregard user experience. I think the problem is that many advertisers and publishers forget or ignore the value of the individual. There may be users who love those full page pop-ups and the flash banners that move so fast they almost send you into a seizure, but I have yet to meet any. That's not to say people don't click on them. But, ruining 10,000 users' experience for one click doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, I think this is the result of how the industry views users - in online advertising users are most commonly bought and sold on a CPM or cost per 1,000 basis (M being the Roman Numeral for 1,000). When users are bought and sold in groups of 1,000 it becomes difficult for those involved to think in terms of 1 because it has such little value in their minds. This, in turn, prompts some to generate as much traffic as they can, in any way possible.
Thus, we decided long ago that each individual user experience is paramount. That's why I personally read every email that comes from our customers (although sometimes it takes a few days). And, that's why you will never see an Advertising Spinlet and why we will never allow someone else to make one. If we're just focused on dollars and cents, we take our eye off the user.
As I was browsing the web last week, I came across a site that brought back memories of the aforementioned experience: socialpay.com . Take a look at the guy next to the CRT monitor and beige tower (circa 1999). Doesn't he look happy? Apparently, you can be happy too - just add one of their Advertising Widgets on your blog. This type of "Pay-Per-Widget" concept is one of many reasons we created Spinlets instead of Widgets (more to come later). Simply put, we don't want to be associated with this practice. Unfortunately, I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg. Web Widgets are a great addition to web 2.0. But, we (as a community) need to take a stand against this practice or it will do to Widgets what SPAM did to email, what Ad-Ware / Spy-Ware did to toolbars, and what "Pay-Per-Blog" is doing to the blogosphere. The last thing I want to see is Widgets being shunned because someone decided that lining their pocket with an extra nickel was more important than user experience.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with someone posting unobtrusive Google AdSense listing or tasteful sponsorships like Mashable. Let's face it, someone has to pay for servers and real bloggers contribute positively to the web 2.0 community so why shouldn't they get paid? What concerns me is the fact that so many lower-tier interactive agencies seem to completely disregard user experience. I think the problem is that many advertisers and publishers forget or ignore the value of the individual. There may be users who love those full page pop-ups and the flash banners that move so fast they almost send you into a seizure, but I have yet to meet any. That's not to say people don't click on them. But, ruining 10,000 users' experience for one click doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, I think this is the result of how the industry views users - in online advertising users are most commonly bought and sold on a CPM or cost per 1,000 basis (M being the Roman Numeral for 1,000). When users are bought and sold in groups of 1,000 it becomes difficult for those involved to think in terms of 1 because it has such little value in their minds. This, in turn, prompts some to generate as much traffic as they can, in any way possible.
Thus, we decided long ago that each individual user experience is paramount. That's why I personally read every email that comes from our customers (although sometimes it takes a few days). And, that's why you will never see an Advertising Spinlet and why we will never allow someone else to make one. If we're just focused on dollars and cents, we take our eye off the user.
