

Show HN: Get paid for crawling the web - jdrock
https://github.com/datafiniti/datafiniti-crawler-min

======
jlt
This is the most stupid & perhaps unethical way of 'powering' your search
engine in history.

Paying a developer to include a web crawler in their extension? Whilst using
the users' bandwidth?

I hope 'Datafiniti' fades out pretty damn soon.

~~~
sebbul
Why all the hate? So far it just looks like a monetization tool to embed in a
Chrome extension. Nothing says it's going to run there by default. We have no
info on the presence or absence of compulsory disclaimers. Nor do we have any
info about the default quotas of daily processing per install.

If the extension provides value to the user, it might be a way to compensate
the provider for the said value. The same way ads compensate the provider of
apps. In either case, computing time and bandwidth are used.

Now, having said that, if it ran 24/7 and used GBs of bandwidth per day on a
single node, I would definitely side with you. But if it was embedded in a way
where you get extra value once you enable it, that's another question.

~~~
jlt
To be a little clearer, I'm only completely against this when it's enabled
within an extension by default; therefore crawling the web without the end
users' knowledge.

If it's something you can enable, then it isn't so bad. This should ultimately
be a choice that the user makes.

------
jdrock
We're experimenting with a new way to power our Datafiniti search engine.
Essentially you get paid for running a distributed web crawler through any
Chrome Extension.

~~~
Fastidious
Who gets paid? The Chrome Extension developer? But it is the user
machine/network performing the work, right?

There is something in this I don't like. Can't quite put my finger on it.

~~~
jdrock
Our intention is to pay the developer. Of course, there'd be nothing stopping
the developer from paying out to users as well.

Happy to get more feedback!

~~~
jlt
"Nothing stopping the developer from paying out to users as well" \- this is
absolutely ridiculous; of course a developer with absolutely no payment
infrastructure is going to start relaying these ill-gotten gains back to
users. It just doesn't work like that.

