I’m not sure how many times I have heard those words. As someone involved in Internet startups on two sides of the investment fence they send a chill down my spine. Usually voiced by someone who thinks they have found the next eBay or Amazon killer application. Do you see many sites threatening their dominance? Its like suggesting Bing is the new way to Google.
Occasionally some old fashioned hogwash is regurgitated and described as “the new new Internet business model” or words similar to that. A couple of weeks ago newspapers announced they were going to start charging for access to read articles on their website. It makes you wonder who makes these decisions, surely no one who actually surfs the net could possibly think their material will be worth squat if it cannot be shared by Internet users such as bloggers and twitter publishers. Who will ever know they wrote anything behind their paywall?
They tried this before too. One of the papers announcing this new move is one of the papers that failed in 1999! What short memories they have or are they not mentioning because of the bad karma it would bring? Who knows. The only thing we know for sure is this won’t work. Why? Well if they hide their text behind a paywall Google won’t index it. If Google don’t index it then no one will know they wrote it. If they allow just Google through like the idiots at Expert Exchange then all you need to do is click the Google Cached link beside the link and you have the full story for free. End of.
If they could provide a compelling reason for people to pay up and read, en masse, they may have found a new business model, but honestly, the only reason I read papers online is I don’t like ink on my fingers.
A new business model for the Internet
I’m not sure how many times I have heard those words. As someone involved in Internet startups on two sides of the investment fence they send a chill down my spine. Usually voiced by someone who thinks they have found the next eBay or Amazon killer application. Do you see many sites threatening their dominance? Its like suggesting Bing is the new way to Google.
Occasionally some old fashioned hogwash is regurgitated and described as “the new new Internet business model” or words similar to that. A couple of weeks ago newspapers announced they were going to start charging for access to read articles on their website. It makes you wonder who makes these decisions, surely no one who actually surfs the net could possibly think their material will be worth squat if it cannot be shared by Internet users such as bloggers and twitter publishers. Who will ever know they wrote anything behind their paywall?
They tried this before too. One of the papers announcing this new move is one of the papers that failed in 1999! What short memories they have or are they not mentioning because of the bad karma it would bring? Who knows. The only thing we know for sure is this won’t work. Why? Well if they hide their text behind a paywall Google won’t index it. If Google don’t index it then no one will know they wrote it. If they allow just Google through like the idiots at Expert Exchange then all you need to do is click the Google Cached link beside the link and you have the full story for free. End of.
If they could provide a compelling reason for people to pay up and read, en masse, they may have found a new business model, but honestly, the only reason I read papers online is I don’t like ink on my fingers.