
Google should be building a global paywall solution to connect them all - d3vc47
https://medium.com/@b44rd/why-google-should-be-building-a-global-paywall-solution-to-connect-them-all-cd6948da8cd7
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andy_ppp
I've thought this forever; there should be one service with a few levels of
content:

(*) free/public - encourage people to come to your site!

($) blog

($$) opinion article

($$$) solid multi-page feature

($$$$) they went out and made a bloody documentary

It's not even that it's difficult to build. YC should just build it as they
are out of the Google/Facebook/Microsoft want to own everything ever written
equation.

If there is one system for this you can give search engines access for free
and even allow people to share articles with relevant people.

There is no paywall, you pay per article a fixed fee per $ everywhere. There
is a value system built in if people think the articles were bad. Better tiers
of users can have different levels they can charge. There is not need for
micropayments as the wallet you top up with $10 per time even though articles
cost, say, multiples 5c.

JS toolkit to bring up the "authorise" credits dialog ala Facebook friends
dialog.

Bookmarking... and loads of other features would be easy to add.

It would make loads of money that.

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iraphael
I just wonder what the effect of having a tool like this available would be.
Most websites don't use paywalls because of a combination of two factors:

a) they don't believe it to be a good business model.

b) they don't want to put the effort into implementing such a system
themselves.

c) they believe paywalls hurt the open web.

If google solves b, we will see a lot more websites putting up paywalls. How
is that good for the open web?

I understand the article is trying to say "if Google doesn't do it, someone
else will, and if that happens the open web will die even faster". But the
assumption that someone will do it and that paywalls will become the standard
at some point is still just that: an assumption. I don't think an assumption
is good enough for a company that values the open web (assuming Google values
the open web) to sacrifice part of it because it would be better than if
someone else did it.

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astazangasta
Is this what life is, now? We make supplications to the largest corporation we
think will help us? We're sliding back into feudalism.

~~~
secstate
Did we ever leave feudalism, at a fundamental level?

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rolfvandekrol
In the Netherlands, there is startup that does allow you to buy newspaper and
magazine articles with micropayments (35 eurocents for example). It's called
Blendle ([http://blendle.com/](http://blendle.com/) ). Sadly not international
yet.

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captn3m0
To build a global paywall, you first need to have a global payment system.
Google still doesn't have a way to accept digital payments in many countries.

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moviuro
410 Error: The author deleted this Medium story

:(

~~~
ggordan
Cached:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2F%40b44rd%2Fwhy-
google-should-be-building-a-global-paywall-solution-to-connect-them-all-
cd6948da8cd7&oq=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2F%40b44rd%2Fwhy-google-
should-be-building-a-global-paywall-solution-to-connect-them-all-
cd6948da8cd7&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.2080j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8)

