

The new schema.org actions: What they mean for personalisation on the Web - ziodave
http://terraces.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/the-new-schema-org-actions-what-they-mean-for-personalisation-on-the-web/

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opendomain
I think Schema.org is a great website for everyone to learn how to classify
their content and outgoing links. Most organizations should follow their
suggestions to improve their search rankings.

My only problem is that I gave the domain schema.org to Google as part of my
OpenDomain project. They originally offered to buy it for $20k, but as we are
not for profit and do not sell domains, I gave it to the for free. All I asked
was for a press release and a link on the main page of the website, but they
still have not done either. Is this how Google shows how they support Open
Source? </end rant>

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buro9
There is no conflict in a non-profit selling something. Simply invest the
proceeds in the goals of the non-profit.

I help a non-profit (UK CIC - Community Interest Company) and we certainly
take every penny that comes our way and just re-invest it.

One thing I've learned from that is that companies who feel they can benefit
from association to us (or some service we provide) will only be positive
towards us until they get whatever they came for.

It's important to make sure that whatever you're getting you acquire in
advance and isn't promise based. All goodwill tends to evaporate on the other
side as soon as their needs are fulfilled. Reality is, most companies don't
care, so take what you can when you can to further your project's goals.

Good luck with persuading Google to now play nice, perhaps the HN mention
might make them do so.

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opendomain
I understand that people have bills so making a profit in not inherently evil.
For OpenDomain, the whole goal was to make sure the domains went to the best
open source projects, so any thought of selling them could corrupt the vision.
I must tell you though - someone approached use years ago for one domain and
had offered to pay for it, but instead I gave away for FREE, only to get SUED
afterward. That made me really question my project. The only thing that kept
it going was that I have been doing this for 15 years. Now Google screwed me -
I should just quit the project and sell all the domains and go on with my
life.

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bergie
For an idea how actions could be used, see what GMail is doing:
[https://developers.google.com/gmail/actions/](https://developers.google.com/gmail/actions/)

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username223
Ugh -- "punch the monkey" animated GIFs for the 21st century. There's a reason
most email clients block images by default. I'm glad I don't use gmail.

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icebraining
Uh, there are no images defined by the sender, just text that appears in a
button or card. Are you confusing the Google Now cards with Gmail actions?

(If it's because of the picture of the plane, that's also put there by Gmail
based on the schema type - "FlightReservation" \- not sent with the email)

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username223
I wasn't very clear in the above post, but tracking and "calls to action" in
the form of "click the annoying thing" are the main reasons most email clients
don't load images by default. This seems like another way of adding "rich,"
interactive content to email, and therefore similarly open to abuse.

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ScottWhigham
I'm trying to understand Google's thinking here. The first thing I thought
was, "If I'm sending mass emails, I already have tracking URLs set up through
whatever mass email company I'm using, right? So what's the value to me, the
company sending my customers emails?"

But then I read their page [1] and I think I get it. This is how you get your
company emails to show up on a Gmail user's Google Now cards. They list a few
other reasons but, ultimately, that's it, right?

[1]
[https://developers.google.com/gmail/actions/overview](https://developers.google.com/gmail/actions/overview)

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Raphael
I can't wait for Google Now card spam.

