Hacker News Reader

ronilanon TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

Reposting myself on the subject[1]:

For anyone not aware (or confused by Silicon Valley tradition on constantly rewriting origin stories), TripAdvisor started in the dot com bubble as a B2B site. They clearly stated their business model was to provide reviews to other sites. Only that after the bubble burst, TripAdvisor had none left. They then basically invented modern SEO: long descriptive URLs, pages pulled out of a db with keyword variations in mind, constantly refreshing content with user submissions, and, the killer, buying links to influence Google’s naive ranking methods (which quickly evolved this to buying entire sites for their SEO potential). The billion dollar public valuation is entirely the result of a decade long SEO play.

(Source: was in online travel related business at the time. Was the first to buy links form Matt at SeatGuru, later acquired by TripAdvisor)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21516006

ronilanon The Cruise Origin

Your wish will be summoned. Just make sure to never have kids and never fall on your luck.

ronilanon Every Google result now looks like an ad

Indeed. Missed that.

Verdict is this: they started at the top, then things went sideways ;)

ronilanon Every Google result now looks like an ad

This suggests otherwise:

“For example, entering the query "buy domain" into the search box on Google’s home page produces search results and an AdWords text advertisement that appears to the RIGHT of Google’s search results” [1]

It is from October, 2000. It is so ancient, it is even before Schmidt happened. I don’t believe anything preceded that, but to be sure we’ll have to wait for Larry to chime in and clarify.

[1] http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self...

ronilanon Every Google result now looks like an ad

(And OT, or maybe not, as far as I can recall, AdWords was still CPM back then)

ronilanon Every Google result now looks like an ad

Your link is gold. A historic artifact.

Amazing how clear the writing is, how simple the message. That’s, like, totally not the corpspeak Goog emits now on a daily basis.

So, let’s do some digging.

Earliest version of url dates back 4+ years. https://web.archive.org/web/20151213182805/https://www.googl...

Things were a little better than, but not by much. This has to be earlier.

Ah, here is:

https://books.google.ca/books?id=oNT3AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA289&lpg=P...

This page is from a book by Douglas Edwards, employee number 59 published in 2011.

The content of OP url, written by same, is dated March 2002.

That company no longer exists. Goog should remove it from their website.

ronilanon Introducing NodeTube, an open-source YouTube alternative powered by NodeJS

They didn’t promote it. They submitted it. The promotion happened with the upvotes. That being said, if it is such a pain that something that was submitted before was submitted again, I can provide help balancing the universe by not submitting something that was never submitted before. Let me know if that helps.

ronilanon How is search so bad? A case study

> This is a query for checking out what reddit thinks in regards to buying a phone

[reddit phone to buy]

What is astonishing, is that the most obvious part of the non-progress in search over the last two decades, is just accepted as the starting point to the way things are.

ronilanon Nobody Cares (2011)

What you don’t know can’t inspire you.

ronilanon Nobody Cares (2011)

Competitive sports are zero-sum only if you ignore all the things that competitive sports are about. Winners and losers are a side effect of the competition not the essence of it.

ronilanon Nobody Cares (2011)

Yes that. But basically not that at all, unless you ignore all the things that make those players who they are.

ronilanon Nobody Cares (2011)

My example is only meaningful to people who know the story, or will research it as a result of that comment.

The view? They’ll form that themselves.

ronilanon Nobody Cares (2011)

Sport is a zero-sum game only if you ignore all the things that sport is about.

Example from this weekend - Shaqueem and Shaquill Griffin sack Aaron Rodgers in the final minutes of a game that ended the Seahawks season with a loss: https://twitter.com/ucf_problems/status/1216547670233358337?...

That was Shaqueem’s first NFL sack. That’s his second season with the Seahawks.

ronilanon Nobody Cares (2011)

“And one time, at Loudcloud”

Edit: enjoy - https://youtu.be/MH619vxtNdo

ronilanon Show HN: Algoviz, Interactive a* Pathfinding Visualization

This is very well done.

Svelte rendering is smooth.

Plugging myself: https://github.com/ronilan/a-mazing-thing

Solver encapsulated as class, rendering demos with Vanilla, React and BlockLike.

ronilanon I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left

One way Google, a software company in the broad sense of the term, could have avoided a blog post with such a title is to never hire a “Head of International Relations” in the first place.

Which leads to my attempt at answering the question, of how one could stay true to ones values - know the things you’ll never do. Then don’t. Ever.

ronilanon Google files opening Supreme Court brief in Oracle v. Google copyright lawsuit

Thanks for the clarification. IANAL.

(It’s been a beautiful saga. I hope they make a movie out of it.)

ronilanon Google files opening Supreme Court brief in Oracle v. Google copyright lawsuit

the lawsuit will now be known as Google v. Oracle, since Google asked the Supreme Court to hear the case. After nine years, we’ll have to get used to calling the case by this new name

Interesting.

Poetic.

Google can’t win this fight (if they win) as a defendant, only as an aggressor.

ronilanon Better protecting kids’ privacy on YouTube

It’s about privacy not content.

(I have a lot to say about content, including suggesting specific solutions to specific problems, but I’ve decided to not air this in a public forum. Further discussion is pay gated. Sponsor me on github for more !!! :))

ronilanon Better protecting kids’ privacy on YouTube

”adults will be unfairly restricted” from what?

Asking for a friend.

ronilanon Better protecting kids’ privacy on YouTube

Assume, just for the sake of the discussion, obviously, that it may be possible to determine, without violating their privacy (and actually without doing a damn thing), that someone might be a child?

Will this help?

(There’s an elephant in the room. All-of-internet wants it straw elephant out (I think). The lawyers just got confused.)

ronilanon Better protecting kids’ privacy on YouTube

Filtering? It’s a discussion about privacy....

(What content/functionality is available to what user is a different question, and, I think we both agree, should be left for the provider to decide.)

(And I always find internet-as-whole arguments as a straw man. We are taking about YouTube and Kids. Nothing more.)

ronilanon Better protecting kids’ privacy on YouTube

Assume, just for the sake of the discussion, obviously, that it may be possible, using some certain commonly accepted methods, and with some reasonable, commonly accepted margin of error, to detect that a user, signed into an account, is NOT a child.

Will this help?

ronilanon California Sues Vinod Khosla over Martins Beach Public Access

Under the terms of the agreement Vinod “gatekeeper” Khosla, will maintain ownership of the newly established Martins Beach Surfing Club House and will be allowed to leave his board and wetsuit on the floor without penalty. The Friends of Martins Beach agree to release Khosla from all gatekeeping shifts, provided that he learns to surf and chill. Free surf lessons for life will be provided to Vinod “dude” Khosla as compensation for Club House use by the public. Drinks will be available, for a fee, to guests over the legal drinking age. Other fees may also apply.

Done.

ronilanon Show HN: A tiny isometric city builder in JavaScript

It’s smooth.

ronilanon Fashionable Problems

Silicon Valley’s biggest problem is that is tends to see problems as opportunities and opportunities as problems. There is no opportunity in that problem.

ronilanon Show HN: HN Card, Hacker News Profile Overlay

Kids, watch and learn.

Let’s pull some rabbits out of thin air again.

But first disclaimer - I’m not saying this is why the extension was developed, or, that this is the reason OP points the vulnerability. I’m 99.999% certain this is a random case, but it is a good learning case nonetheless.

Rabbits.

Sometime in life people say things they regret. Or, they don’t regret, but their self interest is better served if no one knew they said said thing, or it is that they just worry Harvey might be offended and their career path will be ruined, so it better be taken back.

But... yak... what’s done is done.

What can you do?

Cry?

No. Rabbits!

Wouldn’t it be nice if some browser extension published on HN would have some fault that would allow someone else to post using my logged-in account?

So see, I didn’t post that comment.

It was the XSS!!!1

(Or the rabbit)

ronilanon Boeing Starliner updates: Spacecraft flies into wrong orbit, jeopardizing test

> Russian government Soyuz makes it all seem so easy that you tend to forget this stuff is very hard and that success is not all guaranteed

FTFY

ronilanon Krita Receives Epic MegaGrant

I once had an independent project that was both awesome and positioned extremely well for the needs of big co.

But, life, it needed support.

So, big co sent someone with a fat salary and stock options to take care of things. He mailed to “brainstorm” what can be done so that “folks like yourself could successfully build” stuff that benefits them and how to make it “worth a developer’s while”.

So yah.

That was bullshit and the way Open Source is funded is (also, among other such piles) bullshit