> perhaps there’s an opportunity for Phind (and/or similar services) to establish new monetization strategies that don’t rely entirely on getting a click to a site to display an ad.
Most companies seem to be very reluctant to give up all that juicy ad revenue.
Google made its name by being a (faster) ad-free alternative to Alta Vista. But then started serving up ads.
IMDB started out ad-free, but before long started serving up ads.
DuckDuckGo started up ad-free but then started serving up ads.
One of the selling points of cable networks like HBO used to be that they didn't have ads. Their customers would actually pay to have an ad-free experience. But then they too started showing ads.
YouTube started ad-free but switched to showing ads.
Despite their users paying for Windows, Microsoft seems to want to show ads in the Windows Start menu.
Wikipedia is the most mainstream website I can think of that's managed to resist showing ads. Craigslist, too, to a large extent.. but that's about it.
So even were some new service to start up ad-free and even charge for the service, odds are that at some point they'll start showing ads.
Wikipedia doesn't show ads now? So what is that giant popup that occupies half my screen asking for money every time I visit it? That's an ad -- and one more obnoxious than most.
Most companies seem to be very reluctant to give up all that juicy ad revenue.
Google made its name by being a (faster) ad-free alternative to Alta Vista. But then started serving up ads.
IMDB started out ad-free, but before long started serving up ads.
DuckDuckGo started up ad-free but then started serving up ads.
One of the selling points of cable networks like HBO used to be that they didn't have ads. Their customers would actually pay to have an ad-free experience. But then they too started showing ads.
YouTube started ad-free but switched to showing ads.
Despite their users paying for Windows, Microsoft seems to want to show ads in the Windows Start menu.
Wikipedia is the most mainstream website I can think of that's managed to resist showing ads. Craigslist, too, to a large extent.. but that's about it.
So even were some new service to start up ad-free and even charge for the service, odds are that at some point they'll start showing ads.