Tipit for Google?

Google should probably just get it over with and start to offer micropayments. They’re playing footsie with it and the time has come for a general acceptance that the web needs micropayments.

Why do we need them given the availablity of such a wide array of quality free content?

There’s not a single good answer to that as far as I can tell. I’ve looked. The truth is no one seems to have an answer because there’s no way to know.

The best I can come up with goes under the heading of ‘why not?’ What harm can it do? It could and no doubt will produce the emergence of new types or more accurately categories of content that can only flurish or be born in an enviroment where micropaymens are a generally accepted reality.

ManagingPayPal PreparesFor a ChallengeFrom GoogleBy MYLENE MANGALINDANStaff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNALFebruary 6, 2006; Page B1When Jeff Jordan learned last May that Web-search leader Google Inc. was building its own Internet-payment service, he reacted swiftly.Mr. Jordan, who is president of eBay Inc.’s PayPal online-payments unit, immediately asked employees to unearth information about the Google service. Soon, PayPal employees were monitoring blogs, news reports and other data for information about Google’s progress in payments. PayPal staffers even gleaned details about Google’s plans during regular calls to customers who were eager to dish about how Google had reached out to them.

WSJ.com – PayPal Prepares For a Challenge From Google

technorati tags: micropayments, online commerce, blog monitization, content monitization

Skeptical

I’ve been and remain somewhat skeptical whether people will offer tips for content that’s free in sufficient numbers as a way of showing their appreciation to the content distributor / producer / creator.

We’ve been developing Tipit with the intent to extend the functionality into a sort of attention commerce transaction payment system where advertisers will be able to pay bloggers when readers volunteer to view an advertisement. It will work in two modes.

• Readers will have to read the ad before having access to content
• Reader will be allowed to tip the content owner/blogger by mousing over tipit and reading / viewing the ad for which the blogger will be paid.

The idea is that people would give small payments to show their appreciation. But is this sort of likee letting people come to a movie or sporting event and pay only if they feel like it?
Yes, no and not analogous.

Yes voluntary payments are like that — letting them pay if the feel like it.

No its not like a sporting event or a movie in that sports teams and film distributors have a very narrowly targeted audience at that time (seating capacity) and have to know there is a reasonable chance they will receive payment sufficient to cover the costs of creation. And judging from the empty seats at Tennessee Titans games towards the end of this season had they not gotten their cash upfront … well you get the picture.

And finally blogging has more in common with waiting tables than professional sports or filmed entertainment. Bloggers often have a near direct connection with their readers which is gained over time. I now think there is more to the notion of tips than when we started. Time will tell however.

I made my first Tipit tonight. It was this piece by Marcus Whitney on Nashvillesnews. Marcus simply points out that Flex — the very interesting development platform from Adobe/Macromedia — is free now. I didn’t know that and need to. That’s worth a buck. It took me less than 15 seconds to Tipit Marcus.

NEXT: Tipit and campaign finance. I’m not kidding. Howard Dean got far with his grass roots web based Deanspace and we’re going to take that a step further by allowing users to donate to their candidate on the spot. More next week.

Technorati Tags: micropayment, micropayments, unbundled+content

What is Tipit?

TipIt is a PHP module ( available soon — 1-21-06) which allows users of a site to ‘tip’ the creator or author of a piece of content.

See the demo and don’t worry about reading more if you don’t have allot of time. Even if you do have allot of time the demo should explain it fairly well.

TipIt.ws shows statistics of Tipit use.*

*(See notes regarding Tipit installation for website administrators.)

Tipit Logo

Tipit Demonstration

This is a demo of Tipit .

This is a demo of Tipit. If this were a real post you could be so inspired by the writing you decide to use tipit and send the author some appreciation. But its not a real post so don’t send anything. Just test it up to the point of sending. Okay. Thanks.