
Google just launched prizes.org - adora
http://www.prizes.org
======
modernerd
Screenshot when logged in:
[https://img.skitch.com/20110704-j2fdjyed367jcehytnqfp5mea4.p...](https://img.skitch.com/20110704-j2fdjyed367jcehytnqfp5mea4.png)

Initial thoughts and observations:

1\. It's 'Stack Overflow for the common (wo)man' with cash instead of
reputation.

2\. Alternative pitch: "99designs meets Yahoo Answers."

3\. The top prize available at the moment awards $50.

4\. The sign-up process could be a lot better. Prompting sign-up via
twitter/Facebook, then prompting for a prizes.org-only username and password
is an unusual approach.

5\. 'Contest' creation is currently by invitation only.

6\. Answers you give that are accepted become the IP of the person who awarded
the prize. (<http://prizes.org/faq> )

7\. I'm not yet convinced that there's a huge market for paid responses when
the Stack Exchange network and Quora both offer large userbases who give their
time to answer questions for free.

~~~
chrisrogers
> 7\. I'm not yet convinced that there's a huge market for paid responses when
> the Stack Exchange network and Quora both offer large userbases who give
> their time to answer questions for free.

Perhaps it is this model they are trying to defeat. If an answerer has the
opportunity to earn real money for their time, it might be theorized that they
would opt for that over the karma systems. It makes sense for a greater
breadth of expertise, as respect loses its inherent value as you grow beyond
the social circles or occupational circles.

~~~
d4nt
This will be interesting to watch as an experiment in intrinsic vs extrinsic
motivations. Personally, I think this will become a Mechanical Turk style
wasteland full of people charging < $1/hr and churning out dross.

~~~
metaprinter
i had to google 'dross'

~~~
gwern
That is not something to boast about.

~~~
aangjie
perhaps, he thought he was complimenting you..:-)

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dvdhsu
This seems fairly exploitable.

I post a question, and wait for answers. I create another account and answer
it. I pick my own answer as the best answer, and I lose no money. I gain the
information that others gave me for free.

~~~
massarog
This. When it comes to money, people will exploit it as much as possible.

From their FAQ: "Do I have to pick the winner of my contest? If your contest
receives less than 5 entries by the time it ends, you're not obligated to pick
a winner. You have the option to extend the contest for seven (7) days for
free. 'Extend Contest' and 'Contact us' link information is available on the
contest page.

So, what if I just forget to log back in and award people the prize? Does
google automatically pick a winner?

~~~
opcon
Yes, google will automatically pick a winner, as explained here in the faq
(<http://prizes.org/faq>)

 _How does Voting work? You may vote on as many contests as you wish. However,
you can only vote for one entry in a given contest each day, and you may not
vote for yourself. You do have the option to vote for more entries in the same
contest tomorrow! If buyers don't pick a winner when the contest ends, winners
will be chosen by popular vote._

------
nantes
While some of the DNS data points at Google, it's primary DNS server shares
the IP address with a DNS server for slide.com.

The IP address for that DNS server is part of a block that is allocated to
Slide, Inc. at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA which also happens
to be the address of Google HQ.

Which makes sense, given [http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/google-buys-slide-
for-182-m...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/google-buys-slide-
for-182-million-getting-more-serious-about-social-games/).

But no, I wouldn't have thought it was a Google property either.

Edit: fix URLs, oops.

~~~
long
Indeed, the terms of service indicates: "Prizes.org is offered by Slide (part
of Google Inc., located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA,
USA)."

~~~
nantes
Ah, indeed.

I think more than anything this illustrates the state of my brain after
staring at code for well too long--the first thing that occurred to me was
that this was spam or some sort of colossal conspiracy.

Alright then, time for bed.

------
Kylekramer
Slide seems to be operating as an independent operation just funded by Google
at this point (I mean, their other app is a group texting service that debuted
on iOS and has absolutely zero integration with Google services/Google's other
group texting service that just was released). While that is a interesting
strategy, it really makes Google appear scattershot. Especially since Slide's
products all reek of buzzwords and are almost stereotypically Silicon Valley
startup products. If this is the plan, why didn't Google just invest heavily
in Slide instead of acquiring them? Because right now Slide's main recent
success has been creating awkward headlines for Google.

------
yaix
That's from Google? Nah. Anybody had a look at the end of the source, they
used a copy-paste code for the Analytics but forgot to actually put in their
own GA number.

>> var _gaq = [['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X'], ['_trackPageview']];

~~~
pbreit
"Prizes.org is offered by Slide (part of Google Inc., located at 1600
Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA, USA)."

~~~
yaix
Thanks, good info.

And even more funny that they messed up including the GA code and tried to use
some "async hack" to paste it.

~~~
alanh
It's probably from the HTML5 Boilerplate: <http://html5boilerplate.com>

------
gojomo
This is a Google offering that only allows Facebook and Twitter sign-in.
That's a bit odd; perhaps it exists for the purpose of getting people to opt
their Facebook/Twitter info over to Google?

More evidence for this theory: here's what Prizes asks for via Facebook
Connect:

 _…name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and any
other information I've shared with everyone… Prizes may access my data when
I'm not using the application._

The requester dialog only identifies as 'Prizes', _not_ as Google, which seems
a bit shifty. The Prizes 'Privacy Policy' says...

 _We'll treat any such information [from the Social Network Service] under
this policy as if you'd given it directly to us._

It also links to the main Google privacy policy, which says (in far more
words) that Google can use any info you give them to improve any of their
services.

~~~
code_duck
About a month ago, Google started showing me info here and there referring to
people I follow on Twitter. I didn't understand at the time and still don't
know how they matched up my Google account to my Twitter account.

The Facebook request details you're quoting are not unusual.

~~~
gojomo
At one point, I'm pretty sure Google asked me if my Twitter account was me.
That is, they inferred it, based on some number of available signals.

~~~
rms
Me to... I think it was pushed out to me in personalized search when an item I
was searching for was recommended by my twitter handle.

------
jbuchgr
I used traceroute to check where prizes.org is hosted. It runs on slide.com,
which belongs to Google.

The TOS also state the following: "Prizes.org is offered by Slide (part of
Google Inc., located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA, USA)"

<http://prizes.org/tos>

------
tuhin
Is there even the wildest possibility that the entire emphasis of using Fb and
Twitter as primary sign up options was intentional especially to get social
graphs which might not be easily possible directly via G+?

I know it sounds far fetched, but we are talking about the gateway to the
world of social graph that Facebook is highly unlikely to share especially if
it was under the direct banner of Google.

~~~
jpdelatorre
It feels to me that it's more of trying to show independence of Slide team
from Google.

------
AlexC04
Looks pretty legit to me.

    
    
         WHOIS information for prizes.org :
         [Querying whois.publicinterestregistry.net]
    
         [whois.publicinterestregistry.net]
    
         Domain ID:D104066777-LROR
         Domain Name:PRIZES.ORG
         Created On:07-Mar-2004 19:34:50 UTC
         Last Updated On:18-May-2011 17:43:19 UTC
         Expiration Date:07-Mar-2015 19:34:50 UTC
         Sponsoring Registrar:MarkMonitor Inc. (R37-LROR)
         Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
         Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
         Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
         Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
         Registrant ID:mmr-87489
         Registrant Name:DNS Admin
         Registrant Organization:Google Inc.
         Registrant Street1:1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
         Registrant City:Mountain View
         Registrant State/Province:CA
         Registrant Postal Code:94043
         Registrant Country:US
         Registrant Phone:+1.6502530000
         Registrant Phone Ext.:
         Registrant FAX:+1.6502530001
         Registrant FAX Ext.:
         Registrant Email:dns-admin@google.com

------
nekitamo
Sigh, I don't want to sign up via Facebook, and I don't want to sign up via
Twitter. Goodbye otherwise interesting service.

~~~
bobds
And after you connect with your FB or Twitter, it asks you again for an
email/password combo.

~~~
antimora
... and I am still waiting for a confirmation email, without it I can't sign
in.

------
clloyd
_cough_ Google you own your own single sign on technology _cough_

~~~
gojomo
But if you sign in with your Google account, how will Prizes (and by
extension, every other Google service) get your list of Facebook friends?

~~~
mattdeboard
If G+ wants my list of Facebook friends, all they have to do is ask. I'll
gladly hand it over.

~~~
xtal
Not everybody is you.

------
tzury
I think google just completed an ownership transition of this domain, and the
old site remain on the air

<http://who.is/domain_archive-org/prizes.org/>

<http://web.archive.org/web/20071217101136/http://prizes.org/>

------
sshrin
Am really not sure why this app needs offline access to my data. I've
developed Facebook apps myself and it is generally important to clearly
specify why an app needs offline access unless the reason is obvious (say an
iphone client where logging in each time might be a pain).

------
Gustomaximus
Is the rationale behind this prize / contestant format to make it easy to
avoid tax obligation?

I'm just wondering why they set it up this way rather than stating it as a
freelancer format.

------
ericflo
I would have never known this was a Google property.

------
vessenes
Surely the facebook single sign on option will not continue, that is, unless
slide is some sort of joint venture with outside forces?

------
emeltzer
Is this really a google property? It tweets for you, follows its twitter
account without telling you, and spams you as well.

~~~
nowarninglabel
While I don't condone the actions, the part where you say "without telling
you" is unfounded. I just went through the sign-up and there are clearly two
checkboxes, which are checked by default: [x] "Share on Twitter [x] Follow
@Prizes"

------
mancjew
Google does in fact own the domain...

[http://www.dotweekly.com/google-obtains-prizes-org-domain-
na...](http://www.dotweekly.com/google-obtains-prizes-org-domain-
name?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DotWeekly+%28Dot+Weekly%29&utm_content=FaceBook)

------
kennywinker
I signed up, and submitted an answer to a "contest"... it's pretty active, so
I've now received like 30 emails spamming the hell out of my mailbox every
time someone else submits an answer.

After the first 10 I disabled everything that seemed like it would cause these
emails, but no change.

This sucks, please fix.

------
nicholasjbs
Somewhat off topic, but I can't get past how similar the Prizes logo looks to
the Picplz logo.

Load <http://prizes.org/> and <http://picplz.com> in tabs next to each other
and compare their favicons.

------
mvelie
The best part is how the main way to sign in is with facebook connect.

------
yhlasx
I really doubt that this is Google property. If it was, the first thing to
expect would be to sign up/in with my Google account.

------
mnml_
Slide made it, Google owns slide. Slide launched it, Google didn't.

Techcrunch is just using that as a headline to bring trafic.

------
yawniek
<https://www.starmind.com> for the masses?

------
forkrulassail
Interesting that you login with Facebook connect and Twitter, but no google
login.

~~~
panabee
Agreed, why do you think this is?

------
motters
If it requires you to log in with Facebook, that's a red flag right there.

------
vaksel
weird that they are using a .org domain for a commercial service

------
benbeltran
I have something personal against spec work, and this site seems to be all
about it. It's sad that this kind of behavior is becoming more standard. But,
what can one do if not educate future professionals not to take it.

------
AlexCP
There is no way to filter or browse by category, useless.

------
ParadisoShlee_
I want something like this for programmers.

Code my Startup - $5000 ;)

------
incorrigible
Google didn't launch prizes.org; Slide did.

~~~
simonk
Which is a division of Google.

------
antimora
loading animation is annoying

------
shapeshed
spec work is evil. avoid!

------
rjstatic
Ummm, Google launched this? Says who?

------
leeHS
How do I know this is google????? Anyone?

------
tcarnell
I dont believe this is from Google. Dishonest marketing from the real owner to
post on HN that it is by Google...

------
blake8086
This puts me in an interesting position... I launched this exact same product
a few months ago with <http://www.code4cheap.com/>
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2506706>).

What should I do?

