arindone

Agreed -- it's a good filter for a higher probability of better talent (note: I say "probability" and not "guarantee") and their stock price and potential for growth speak for their human resources strategy.

To be fair Google has had a similar unofficial policy for ages and it has worked well for them =)

(Not supporting it either way...a bit undecided myself)

It's easy to say that from a philosophical point of view, but it's preposterous from a business point of view. In an organization like theirs working on 1000's of different things at once, you can't keep expanding horizontally; you have to eventually cut your losses on certain things and re-allocate resources to things that DO work and get ROI.

Businesses, and pretty much any organized group, MUST prioritize their workload and not have a shit-show working on everything all at once.

It is absolutely material in competitive and antitrust law. It's not an issue of interpretation or opinion here -- it's applying the same principles that got Microsoft in trouble in the 90's.

100% agreed -- anecdotal blog posts should not be up-voted to oblivion simply because the community at HN agrees with them. (Though I find it ironic that such a technical community doesn't consider lack of data in arguments like these an issue.)

Agreed -- this article shows not one data point to back-up their argument, but if you do look users actually opt for social login due to ease of access and use. Hell it's what makes paypal so easy and popular -- you put your data in one trusted service, and it works with minimal pain points across any site that requires payments.

Well look at the alternatives:

(1) join dropbox, probably for a pretty penny with stock options that will probably look very nice when Dropbox goes public -- fuel further growth and integration with Dropbox with even more significant resources at your disposal (including HIRING really good engineers a la "come work for Dropbox!")

(2) stay as a high-risk start-up with no revenue, no tested plans of monetization with huge problems of scale (due to its rapid growth) and create a funding round which liquidates your ownership stake significantly, puts you @ the mercy of some risk averse VC's and limits your exit options (depending upon valuation)

I love the product, but I have to admit this (1) would be my choice as well

Exactly -- it's a product with a loyal following, but not necessarily significant... and when you work on the scale of Google, a few million people (or even a few dozen) does not move the needle for them

I'm skeptical that it would be enough to even come close to pay the engineers working on the project, never mind supporting the data storage for all the users

Agreed -- anti-competitive law is pretty clear on the fact that scale and market dominance in one market cannot be leveraged to gain significant market share in another market for this exact reason

It's an irrelevant question -- when you work on the scale that Google does and have the data that they can analyze, it's easy to make the business case that it is either a good business product or not worth the time.

It's easy to make a survey and petition and whatnot, but power users are always the minority (the long tail) and do not drive a business alone. Especially one where the engineers supporting any product are paid six-figures a piece and the product is not directly monetized (i.e. you're not paying for it, you're not hosting the data, etc.)

I think that's the point -- a passive journal/log of your life and connections (I default all posts to be "Only Me" and share what I want as appropriate to further cement in my mind this idea of a personal journal that's backed up in the cloud.)

It's in this perspective that I don't think you're asking the right questions -- would you consistently read and curate old journals or photo albums? You may every now and then, but the point is that they're there for later reflection...

I use it quite a bit...I've been using it as my personal journal (setting the default post setting to be shown to "Only Me") and it's still the page I see when checking other friends' activity

I actually love the app for a personal journal that backs up privately with Facebook -- i.e. it posts to Facebook but posts from the app are made private automatically via the privacy settings...it's sweet and I can still make things public on Facebook to share if I want with family/friends

EDIT: my only current gripe is the inability to post on the desktop -- even if it was a simple browser extension where I post text updates, the ability to type on my laptop while @ work or something is something I value (and according to some of the comments here, may be a larger phenomenon)

This is an overly simplistic statement. They're completely different tools:

Tumblr is a tool for developing (micro?)blogs about any topic under the sun -- therefore identity isn't really relevant (unless you WANT to be an authoritative source on a topic, for which a real identity WILL take you further than a pseudonym on average)

Facebook is about connecting people -- REAL people; therefore pseudonyms take away from that experience. If pseudonyms were in any way positively correlated with the experience, Myspace would still be going strong.

It's often not said enough, but the goal of Facebook during its history has always been to connect <i>real</i> people -- places like Twitter offer the opportunity to create humorous pseudonyms and fake identities, but Facebook (and Google+ for that matter) are about connecting people and fleshing out those connections.

A point that's overlooked: MySpace allowed pseudonyms to run free and wild, but that's what made the connections on the site all-the-more shallow.

Misleading title -- the point is that having an item on your to-do list 'learning how to code' is not as useful as something more specific, say 'learn javascript to start work on my own blogging platform' ... essentially it's an article on better goal creation/identification

I am a big fan of the "Learn to Code" movement, and I agree that Statistics should be even HIGHER priority than coding - data-based reasoning & communication are almost an absolute necessity for <b>any</b> field.

Also the job prospects are probably just as strong for data analytics folks, even if the median salaries don't match software folk

Frankly the data shows otherwise ... from my previous work in the industry the majority of people respond well to retargeting simply because it's relevant and useful. Hell it's been working for Google for years...

I used to work in an advertising start-up, and I have no qualms about it. I think it's naive to consider it "unacceptable" or "evil" ... and there are two BIG reasons I say this: (1) Google and (2) Free Content vs Pay-walls (1) Google essentially reads your emails and any searches you do, and provides ads based upon any/all data you provide to it (including Google+, Drive, etc.) Last time I checked Google was pretty popular and this business model was pretty well accepted... (2) With so much free-content on the web, is it that much to ask that the people producing that content have a means to make a living? The fact that we can Google virtually ANY information in the world (even on our phones for crying-out-loud) is worth the small sacrifice that we see a few ads in the process

What gets me is that most of the comments here are <i>defending</i> Google for sending your information to developers; however if any other independent site/app took your information and sent it to a third party without your permission there would be uproars and articles in tech blogs, etc...

A bit of a double standard if you ask me...

Indeed -- the point that struck me most was this quote:

"...OpenX lays the blame squarely on the vulnerabilities of open source in a hackers’ world..."

A bit of a misleading title -- I got really nervous because I have friends who work for OpenX; yet it was the OnRamp service that was shut down and not really the entire company.

this sort of goes against one of the philosophies/purposes of 'timeline,' namely a journal of your life along with all the related connections you may have made. you may be able to hack something, but is the gain/ROI really worth it?

Maybe it's a West Coast thing...I've worked jobs in Los Angeles and now the valley and company cell phones in lieu of desk phones is the new standard I think. That, and Facebook video chat/Google chat/Skype...

well this is part of a series for Lifehacker -- they've had some other interesting ones in the past (including the Editor of the MIT Tech Review.)

I have to REALLY disagree here -- maybe it's because I just read Cal Newport's "So Good They Can't Ignore You," but I have to believe that you have significant career capital that others generally don't have.

Sure, it's easy to cash that in for a sweet job if you're a very hard worker (note: not necessarily "passionate") and/or if you have some valuable skills that would just deprecate if left to incubate in college for 4 years. Sure, if you're going to college for a liberal arts degree or english lit then the 4 year investment of >$100k is not worth your time.

I do respect the fact that you somewhat avoid the maxim that "it was a waste of time for ME therefore YOU shouldn't go to college." But I think the center is displaced disingenuously -- university is for developing a skill set that may not be there just yet. If I taught myself to cook and have been cooking for a few years, but my friends can't and they're all going to cooking school to learn to cook, I can't complain and say "Cooking school was a waste of time to me -- in fact all you need is passion to just go do it!" as if that's a meaningful statement or maxim to be sent out into the world. Because we know that borders on BS.

I believe significantly in taking advantage of your strengths; however hard work, regardless of the setting, is the true differentiator.

Recurring transparency report? Have you ever asked Google for such things when it reads your emails to sell you ads? Have you ever asked Target or Walmart for this when they track your credit card purchases and sell the ACTUAL data to other parties?

Stories like this are driven mostly by unverified rumors and sensationalist journalism that is JUST as rampant in the tech industry as it is in politics, economics, or any other topic covered in mass media today.

For Mac OS sales in-store will always trump sales out-of-store; the Mac buying experience is quintessential for the average consumer. This comparing Linux Chromebook purchases on Amazon with Mac OS is irrelevant to me.

I will say the comparison to Windows-based computers is a bit surprising however. Still, the type of person who buys a computer on Amazon is more tech-savvy anyway and would prefer a Linux-based OS as compared to the other two.