Remembering 'The Tech That Died in 2023' (pcmag.com) 117
"10 years later, the demise of Google Reader still stings," writes PC Magazine. But "Time marches on and corporate priorities shift. Here are the products and services that took a final bow in 2023..."
Some of the highlights? 'Clubhouse' Clones
In the early days of the pandemic, when Zoom happy hours and sourdough starters proliferated, Clubhouse burst onto the scene with an app that facilitated audio-only chats between groups large and small. Tech giants quickly churned out their own Clubhouse clones, but these party-line throwbacks were not long for this world. Facebook was the first to go, ditching its Live Audio Rooms in December 2022, but 2023 also saw the end of Reddit Talk, Spotify Live, and Amazon's live radio DJ Amp app. [X Spaces is still around]
Amazon Smile
Launched in 2013, AmazonSmile saw Amazon donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases made through smile.amazon.com to charity, with consumers able to choose from over a million charitable organizations to support. On Feb. 20, however, the program shut down because it "has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped," Amazon said at the time.
NFTs on Facebook and Instagram
Remember non-fungible tokens (NFTs)? Somehow, crypto bros convinced people to spend big bucks on what are essentially JPEGs. (Don't try to convince me otherwise.) Meta got in on the action in 2022, allowing Instagram users to create NFTs and Facebook users to share them. It didn't exactly set either social network on fire and Meta said in March it would be "winding down digital collectibles."
Cortana on Windows
In June, AI claimed its latest victim by coming after Microsoft's Cortana. The voice assistant never really made a splash compared to Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri, and with the launch of Bing Chat (now Copilot), Microsoft removed Cortana as a built-in app on Windows.
Also on the list are Blizzard's Overwatch League, third-party Reddit clients, and Venmo as a payment option on Amazon (effective this January 10).
Looking further into the future, Gmail's Basic HTML View disappears in 2024, while Wordpad will eventually be removed in an unspecified future release of Windows.
Some of the highlights? 'Clubhouse' Clones
In the early days of the pandemic, when Zoom happy hours and sourdough starters proliferated, Clubhouse burst onto the scene with an app that facilitated audio-only chats between groups large and small. Tech giants quickly churned out their own Clubhouse clones, but these party-line throwbacks were not long for this world. Facebook was the first to go, ditching its Live Audio Rooms in December 2022, but 2023 also saw the end of Reddit Talk, Spotify Live, and Amazon's live radio DJ Amp app. [X Spaces is still around]
Amazon Smile
Launched in 2013, AmazonSmile saw Amazon donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases made through smile.amazon.com to charity, with consumers able to choose from over a million charitable organizations to support. On Feb. 20, however, the program shut down because it "has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped," Amazon said at the time.
NFTs on Facebook and Instagram
Remember non-fungible tokens (NFTs)? Somehow, crypto bros convinced people to spend big bucks on what are essentially JPEGs. (Don't try to convince me otherwise.) Meta got in on the action in 2022, allowing Instagram users to create NFTs and Facebook users to share them. It didn't exactly set either social network on fire and Meta said in March it would be "winding down digital collectibles."
Cortana on Windows
In June, AI claimed its latest victim by coming after Microsoft's Cortana. The voice assistant never really made a splash compared to Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri, and with the launch of Bing Chat (now Copilot), Microsoft removed Cortana as a built-in app on Windows.
Also on the list are Blizzard's Overwatch League, third-party Reddit clients, and Venmo as a payment option on Amazon (effective this January 10).
Looking further into the future, Gmail's Basic HTML View disappears in 2024, while Wordpad will eventually be removed in an unspecified future release of Windows.
NFTs (Score:2)
While it is extremely funny how people paid huge sums of money for shitty algorithmically generated ape JPEGs, let's not forget that they are victims too. It was a huge, and completely legal scam.
Re:NFTs (Score:5, Insightful)
I never understood NFT's. Nothing about them made any sense. You pay a lot of money for a digital cert of sorts that has absolutely no tangible association with anything.
So I buy this NFT of an APE. Do I own the copyright on the pic. Nope. I buy the NFT of the first Tweet. What do I have well nothing. Not like you can control how the tweet is used.
I can apparently sell nothing for a lot of money as well.
But holy cow did none technical people scoop them up. I personally know a number of people that lost a LOT of money on them.
Re:NFTs (Score:5, Interesting)
Looking back, I'm a bit angry at myself for not hopping on the NFT bandwagon as an issuer. It was a beautifully transparent scam, to the point where I'm not sure I even feel bad for the people who fell for it.
John Cleese making an NFT was icing on the cake.
Re:NFTs (Score:5, Insightful)
They did find an use by the end, tickets. Owning a Bored Ape gives you the right to enter a party full of awful people. And you can't fake that because it's the blockchain they check.
Of course not even that is a good idea. Used this way you advertise your memberships to everyone you come into contact with. Imagine that every time you pay for a beer you let the bartender rifle through your wallet and see everything you're involved with.
Re: NFTs (Score:2)
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Extremely awful way to live though.
In the ideal NFT-world, everything is a NFT: your movie ticket, your school diploma, your house's deed, your membership in various organizations. The same wallet is also your way to pay for anything and log in anywhere. Your entire identity is connected to this stuff.
So under a model like that every time you interact with almost anything or anyone they find your wallet ID, and obtain the ability to scrutinize what you own, where you've been, what you pay for, how much you
Re:NFTs (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it was basically a pyramid scheme. You hope that there is someone dumber than you, willing to pay even more than you did.
Re: NFTs (Score:3)
Sums up most crypto "currency" too. At least with fiat currencies governments can adjust the amount in circulation while they pull and push various economic levers to keep the value steady. With crypto, nope. Its little more than an intangible junk investment.
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I'll take a small single digit decline in value each year over random value changes within the same week of over 50%.
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P T Barnum (Score:5, Insightful)
He never stops being proved correct though I suspect his one born every minute was a considerable understatement,
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I never understood NFT's. Nothing about them made any sense. You pay a lot of money for a digital cert of sorts that has absolutely no tangible association with anything.
Same deal with cryptocurrencies. The US dollar is backed up by the US government and its associated institutions - most notably, the US military. Cryptocurrencies are, at best, backed up by a bunch of big players who run a pump-and-dump operation to fleece the gullible. Hardly different from NFTs.
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Exactly.
No matter what they claim, cryptocurrencies aren't backed by anything, at least not in the real world (and that's where the bills come due).
Executive producer and sometimes a license (Score:2)
When the author of a work sells an NFT of the work, the closest analogue in traditional media is that you're buying credit as an executive producer of the work.
Some NFTs also confer an exclusive license from the author to make specified uses of the work, like "adoptables" on DeviantArt. Not all do. Read the fine print on what you're buying.
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As with Crypto, the fact is no one really does. The scam is basically a "secret knowledge" con game, in which you put your trust in some sort of high priest or prognosticator who totally understands what mere mortals can't, and hand him your money.
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I describe NFTs as "bragging rights", indeed rather adapt at separating fools from their money.
Re:NFTs (Score:5, Informative)
They were good for money laundering.
Let's imagine you'd hacked an exchange and had $10 million in stolen bitcoin. You want to cash it in and buy a house, but can't convert it directly to dollars because your bank would report the transaction and you'd get a "please explain" from the authorities. So you knock up some JPEGs and buy them off yourself via an anonymous account for $10 million. Then you pay tax on the income, and the rest of the money is clean.
Re: NFTs (Score:2)
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It's not that the fool will stick his finger into the flame, but that he'll do it again, even though he got burnt the first time. The fool doesn't learn and that's what scam artists and con men depend on to make a living. Think of it as an economic form of evolution in action.
Re:NFTs (Score:5, Interesting)
They might have been 'victims', but their wounds were self-inflicted. That's an important distinction IMHO.
1) At some point you stop being a victim and become an accomplice, even if it's against yourself.
2) No one forced them to buy NFTs. They spent money because they were fools who listened to con artists (and the other fools).
3) I have no sympathy for 'victims' of the NFT craze. Anyone who was dumb enough to invest in an imaginary product that they didn't understand* kinda deserves what they get. I'm a little sorry they lost money, but only a little.
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*No one really understands NFTs and all the associated bullshit that goes with them. Gas fees, transfer fees, suckmypecker fees, etc etc etc. No one understands this shit except the crooked clowns who developed it, and they deliberately developed it in such a way as to make sure no one understands it. The same goes for crypto.
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They didn't pay money for pictures.
They paid money for the receipt that this picture they have is unique.
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This is how modern art/tax evasion it enables works. Remember banana taped to a wall being sold for a large sum? Well, banana spoiled pretty fast as they do, and anyone can tape a banana to a wall with same kind of a tape, same kind of wall and all modern bananas are clones of one another.
So what was actually sold was a receipt that this installation is unique. Banana spoiled away, so it's no longer the same banana if you remake the installation. But it's unique because you have the certificate, which is wo
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I'm not sure if this is a 70 IQ take, or a 75 IQ take.
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Oh, I understood the depth of your stupidity. I'm just not sure exactly how deep it goes.
The Metaverse (Score:5, Interesting)
Several metaverses launched, and they were all dead as of 2023. Empty wastelands with 2 active users in the whole world. Full of abandoned structures that were supposed to be worth millions.
The Facebook one is still going, but it's on live support.
Re:The Metaverse (Score:5, Insightful)
These 3D alternate environments will never catch on until the whole problem of the interface is solved.
Right now it requires goggles a dedicated space and a pile of money.
These verses all lack a fundamental ability. They lack a casual interaction. Phones are great at casual. We literally engage with them for micro seconds at a time. A glance hear and there and that's often enough. The Verse environments all require a dedicated block of time and location.
Also lets not forget that a significant portion of the population gets physically ill engaging with it. These people are effectively lost as users forever. It's highly unlikely they will tray again.
They simply won't catch on until issue with goggles is removed. It literally needs to be able to engaged with at a moments impulse. Now what does this look like. Well that is literally a Trillion dollar answer. The team that sorts this out will be by far the richest people on the planet in very short order. My I honestly don't think this will happen unless there is a biological interface solution. As humans we are very far away from this sort of capability.
Re:The Metaverse (Score:4, Interesting)
They will never catch on because everything in them is shit. There is no compelling reason to spend time there.
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Re:The Metaverse (Score:4, Funny)
Man, I can't wait for VR Jira and VR Confluence!
(I'm kidding; I'd kill myself if I ever had to work with Jira or Confluence through a VR app.)
Re:The Metaverse (Score:4, Funny)
Seek help. Even if you're just kidding, the idea of VR Confluence and/or Jira is a really sick and twisted thought to be having.
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Seek help. Even if you're just kidding, the idea of VR Confluence and/or Jira is a really sick and twisted thought to be having.
I know, that's what makes me so lovable!
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Why wait?
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Right. There were smart phones before the iPhone. For a long time too. They didn't catch on because the killer app hadn't arrived.
And really, the only thing they did was improve the web browser UI at the same time mobile networks had the bandwidth to work with it Dynamic CSS layouts with a modern browser engine, pinch to zoom, and a CPU that isn't underpowered. That's all they had to do.
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Well, what Apple really did was put a full desktop browser in a phone. The best phone browsers of the day was Opera - and it was limited in a lot of ways. But what made it good was it supported JavaScript so it actually supported a lot of websites. Bu
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This is the fundamental problem with VR worlds. If you don't give people the option to create things then the only things that will be in your VR worlds are bought and paid for. If you do then you get fifty foot flaming penises or whatever. Second Life became a big furry convention. No kink shaming intended, but that's clearly not what the majority wants... or it would be popular. (To be fair, the interface is also terrible.)
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They will never catch on because everything in them is shit. There is no compelling reason to spend time there.
Bingo. People don't go there mostly because there's no reason to go there.
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I think this may be a "chicken or egg" problem. The app won't show up, because there's no market, and the market doesn't exist without the app. It will probably need to develop in one or two small specialized niches, and expand from there, the way the net did. Most of the net used to be academia and government.
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Yep, that's it. There isn't any 'killer app' that's compelling enough to get people to start buying VR gear.
I've thought and thought about what would be a killer app, but honestly I haven't come up with anything. Taking existing apps and stuffing them into a headset won't do it, it's got to be 1) something that actually uses the VR gear in a way that makes sense AND 2) something that you can't do with a flat screen monitor.
My guess is that the first 'breakthrough' VR app will be something developed by some
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VR has been growing consistently year over year.
So has "Linux on the desktop", and people actually use that. lol
Even with the vast sea of Windows users out there, VR adoption barely adds up to a rounding error.
I'd guess that the vast majority of us here don't own a VR headset and don't know anyone who does. And if that's true of the general population of Slashdot ("News for Geeks") then I don't see VR as being a thing right now.
Maybe in the future (probably in the future) it will be, but it surely isn't much of a thing right now.
So like I said...apparent
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I'd guess that the vast majority of us here don't own a VR headset and don't know anyone who does.
I don't know about that, maybe you should suggest a survey. I do know people who own headsets. If you're not into games, you're probably not going to like them, though.
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Re:The Metaverse (Score:5, Interesting)
There is one metaverse that has done well: Microsoft Flight Simulator. https://readwrite.com/microsof... [readwrite.com] Unlike the others, this one provides something that people actually want: the ability to "fly" a plane anywhere in the world.
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I love that description. It's apocalyptic, yet simultaneously of no concern because it applies to silly non-places.
But will 2024 See the end of Twitter? (Score:2, Troll)
Decent chance that Twitter is discarded or sold off for fractions of a penny on the dollar.
It's hard swing to right wing conservative bias which has directly influence on the advertising dollar exit. On top of that the leader Elon has no filter and creating scandal after scandal with ill thought out posts.
I have a lot of respect for Elon, But Twitter will rank as one of his all time biggest mistakes.
But will his ego allow him to cut Twitter free? I think it will require his investors to put some serious
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I have a lot of respect for Elon,
That makes one of us...
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I have a lot of respect for Elon,
That makes one of us...
So Elon is an arsehole. But that doesn't explain the countless arseholes on the internet who think they are better than him, despite never achieving anything.
Steve Jobs was famously an even bigger arsehole, but did he come in for this sort of treatment? I think the internet has gotten a lot dumber in the short time since he died.
Re:But will 2024 See the end of Twitter? (Score:5, Interesting)
So Elon is an arsehole. But that doesn't explain the countless arseholes on the internet who think they are better than him, despite never achieving anything.
Being an asshole and achieving something are two different things. In fact, one could argue that being an asshole makes achieving something more likely.
Of course, that also brings the question: what does "achieving anything" means? Is it earning a lot of money? Is it making electric tanks? is it flying around in a private jet ~500 times per year, and emitting ~400 times the amount of CO2 of the average US citizen? Is it giving your time as a voluntary firefighter and getting paid a few pennies?
The definition to "achieving anything" tells more about you than the person you are judging.
Steve Jobs was famously an even bigger arsehole, but did he come in for this sort of treatment?
Yes, he did have the same treatment. Did you ever bothered to read his biography? Even in there, it is said quite plainly that he was a selfish asshole with quite a few sociopathic traits.
The real issue here seems that you are an Elon fanboy, and as such, can't stand anyone critisizing him.
Re: But will 2024 See the end of Twitter? (Score:5, Informative)
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I guess Godwin really did have a point.
Yeah, I wonder what he might say about this [twitter.com].
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Is that you again hillary?
Better lay off the wine.
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Yes I read the biography, so yes, obviously on the bad traits.
The real issue here seems that you are an Elon fanboy, and as such, can't stand anyone critisizing him.
Wow, the guy I just called an arsehole? Does that need translating for you? Seems like there are a few emotional issues going on for you too.
I'm a "fanboy" of the achievements at Tesla and SpaceX. The latter more exciting, but Tesla has dragged the automotive industry kicking and screaming inot mass production of EVs. The benefits of that for the planet are incalculable. So respect is due. Does not mean I'm blind to the screwups elsewhere, but
Re:But will 2024 See the end of Twitter? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm a "fanboy" of the achievements at Tesla and SpaceX.
I wouldn't let people know I was a "fanboy" of a company whose cars are brittle [reuters.com] to the point they break when you drive them off the lot [businessinsider.com] and blames either the user who has to pay for repairs or on previous damage to the brand new vehicle, whose steering wheels come off while driving [cnn.com], whose vehicles can brake whenever they feel like it [reuters.com], whose doors can open if there they're involved in a crash [cbsnews.com], whose vehicles keep plowing into emergency vehicles [techcrunch.com] which have their lights on, who thought it would be a great idea to offer a "reacher" [electrek.co] because they were too lazy to offer right-side steering vehicles in the UK, and has lied about every item of his supposed education [imgur.com] which involved nothing in science or engineering, among other things.
And let's not get into how the people working a SpaceX have to work around [imgur.com] that delusional pedo guy to get anything done.
Tesla and SpaceX are not what they are because of Musk, they are what they are despite him.
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I'm not about to buy a Tesla, but I admire the way he push electric cars so that others are building them. I'm still waiting for a self-driving car that I can own, though.
I'm not really sure that the space-based internet is a good decision. Too much development where one bad solar flare can kill it. But I admire SpaceX.
Elon is a mixed bag, and I sure wouldn't want to work for him, but I feel that on the average he's more socially helpful than harmful. And there are a lot of powerful people I wouldn't sa
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I wouldn't let people know I was a "fanboy" of a company whose cars are brittle [reuters.com] to the point they break
Do you know what "quotes" mean? It does not matter if Tesla goes broke tomorrow. It is because of them that the industry has seriously started to shift.
BTW, your car appears to have a loud whining noise from somewhere behind the steering wheel.
Re: But will 2024 See the end of Twitter? (Score:2)
And that will let him focus on the engineering he is brilliant at ( and here's a STFU in advance to all the sad pricks whose ignorance, stupidity and pathetic jealousy makes them unable to concede his genius ).
Re: But will 2024 See the end of Twitter? (Score:1)
Elon Musk is just a brand name slapped onto the totality of accomplishments made by other more intelligent people so they can be sold to useful idiots who earnestly want to believe he is a real life Tony Stark. He does not invent or innovate. He just purchases inventions and innovations from actual geniuses, then rebrands it with his name, and fools lap it up as if he came up with the ideas himself.
Get back to me when we regularly see him on the Tesla assembly line turning a wrench or behind the computer wr
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he wrote some code to get bought out by another payment platform
FTFY
Re:But will 2024 See the end of Twitter? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: But will 2024 See the end of Twitter? (Score:1)
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I mentioned SpaceX and Tesla. Calling the guy who did that a "moron" is just embarrassing yourself.
I guess we will have to agree to disagree.
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The same Tesla that stuck a customer with a repair bill for thousands after a simple car wash destroyed the wiring. Or another customer for thousands when the suspension fell apart only 115 miles out of the lot. And locks car owners in with flush handles on the outside while the car burns them alive.
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I firmly believe that unnecessary motorization/actuation is bad, but here's an example where it killed.
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Because they're the only manufacturer of electric vehicles, right?
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Mental note: sarcasm tag required when responding to Musk fanatics.
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Seems a bit harsh to compare Musk to Biden.
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I have a lot of respect for Elon,
Is your brain injury the result of an accident or is it genetic in nature?
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I'm sure those ads for 'Jack Off Pants" will cover the hole left by all the big guys with deep pockets leaving. Pun intended.
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Undoing incorrect mod
Clubhouse clones? (Score:3)
How about Clubhouse itself? Although I suppose it's merely pinin' for the fjords...
Stadia (Score:2)
Stadia got shut down this year, taking my Linux gaming time with it. Recently Geforce Now filled the niche, but it feels much more clunky.
NFTs are not JPEGs (Score:5, Insightful)
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True. NFTs are at best a pointer to a JPEG,
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In other words, it's a URI but not guaranteed to be a URL for any length of time.
Missed opportunity (Score:3)
Would love if it was standard practice to seek interviews with the hypebeasts for the tech that didn't make it.
Just as a bookend, a "how it started/how it's going" kinda closure to the obnoxious modern convention of cheerleading for anything because so many others are doing it that it's somehow fine.
"You'd previously said you're 'excited to announce'; are you still 'excited to announce' these days?"
"Do you stick think this failed product is the future, or did you get widely misunderstood as thinking it was the future when at the time you sit 'was the future'?"
"Are you still available to announce excitement for new products this coming year?"
I expect a large chunk of it would be "%hypebeast did not respond to requests for comment as of time of publication" but since they'd know others would for shameless selfpromotion's sake it might be a higher number than expected.
Amazon Smile (Score:4, Interesting)
This was always a half-hearted donation program, Amazon never put the effort into it to make it work. It was also too unfocused. By letting everyone choose which organization would receive their donations, no organization got more than a pittance. So it didn't really help anyone much. When I saw how little money was actually being donated because of my choosing Amazon Smile, I quit, it wasn't worth the extra hoops.
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Allowing myriad organizations to use it was a feature, not bug. But the extra hoops were definitely a problem. "Oh, not enough people use this minimally publicized tool we provide that's only accessible if you say the magic word, conveniently saving us from having to actually donate even the pittance we might have otherwise done so... I guess we'll just remove it then"
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Agreed. If I could have set my profile to direct contributions to my favorite charity, and that would apply to all future purchases on my account, it might have worked.
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Agreed. If I could have set my profile to direct contributions to my favorite charity, and that would apply to all future purchases on my account, it might have worked.
I'm not sure I follow this.
My chosen charity followed me around Amazon, and Amazon even reminded me when I wasn't on the "Smile" page. Indeed, the charity didn't receive much thanks to me... the percentage of a small purchase history is just not much... but it did seem to work without much effort on my part...
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Right, they reminded you (way back when), but you still had to then go to the Smile link to complete your order, it wasn't automatic. And if you were ordering from the mobile app, you couldn't do that.
Re:Amazon Smile (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the world's richest people trying to guilt others into giving away their money? Fuck Bezos. Let him be charitable first.
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Right!
That's what annoys me about all these "round up" donation options at checkout counters. You want me to donate my money to your questionable foundation? Right. Now, if you promise to double my money, and you direct the money to an organization that makes a real difference, we're starting to show some seriousness.
At least Amazon Smile was a donation from Amazon's profits, and not asking me to chip in from my own money.
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An accountant I know said the businesses they've dealt with use people's "donations" for the corporation's taxes! You're basically paying their taxes for them and as a result your taxes have to go up because somebody has to pay. The charity can be questionable as well but could be totally legit; same trick either way.
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Um, Smile did not cost the customer anything.
But the half percent was kinda like multi-millionaire pop stars lip-syncing for 10 minutes at a benefit that raises a couple grand for some cause.
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This was always a half-hearted donation program, Amazon never put the effort into it to make it work. It was also too unfocused. By letting everyone choose which organization would receive their donations, no organization got more than a pittance. So it didn't really help anyone much. When I saw how little money was actually being donated because of my choosing Amazon Smile, I quit, it wasn't worth the extra hoops.
Sure my charity didn't get 50 million dollars, but some of them are on a shoe-string budget, so a couple thousand bucks would certainly help. It was unfortunate the Smile program bit the dust.
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Um, I'm not going to donate without knowing where my money is going. :rolleyes: I sent mine to the non-profit school my son attended at the time. Why would I have given anonymously and had it go to Trump or something?
Organizations were only listed that put in the effort to join and participate,which was outsize compared to the half-percentage. THAT was the flaw. It could have been easier to participate, or it could have been more than 1%.
Cortana gone? (Score:2)
Amazon Smile (Score:3)
"has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped," Amazon said at the time.
This is some galling BS. Amazon made Smile difficult to use. You had to keep re-confirming your target charity on mobile, while on a desktop browser, you had to make sure you used the domain name "smile.amazon.com" instead of the default "amazon.com".
If Amazon really wanted people to use it, it would have been a one-time setup and would have applied to all purchases, with no special URLs.
"Digital collectables" (Score:2)
Amazon Smile (Score:2)
I suppose not a whole lot of people out there even know what Amazon Smile was. It was a way for 501(c)(3) nonprofits to get a half a cent on the dollar when a supporter purchases any item on Amazon, providing that they started that purchasing session from a particular URL. While is was not a big source of income for my non-profit it was at least a steady income. Trying to get started as a nonprofit is very difficult in the current economic climate because few people are willing to give, but this money came