Apture acquired by Google(techcrunch.com)
techcrunch.com
Apture acquired by Google
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/10/google-buys-contextual-rich-news-browsing-startup-apture-to-beef-up-chrome/
13 comments
Apture helped enhance web sites with supporting media functionality. For smaller sites that did not have time or talent to get widgets and such installed, Apture offered a simple way to do media feature upgrades with a very small investment of time. I will miss those features.
How interesting. I worked on something very similar back in 2005 (but never launched): RocketMenu
http://www.yarone.com/2011/02/rocketmenu-unobtrusive-search-...
http://www.yarone.com/2011/02/rocketmenu-unobtrusive-search-...
What's a typical acquisition compensation package for a non-founding engineer being acquired by Facebook, Google, eBay,etc? Anyone know?
They removed Apture from the Chrome Store just now
Love it. Can't wait to see how they will incooperate it into Chrome
Someone else also read APERTURE?
Google acquired Aperture Science?!?!
I'm guessing they wanted to, but this was the closest they could get
I have never heard of Apture up until now, but I love the idea. Congrats to both Tristan and Can, keep up the great work.
I love contextual search on tablets, and really hate it on the browser.
"Never heard of it" ... "Apture Highlights" ... "oh".
I hate those things, I often highlight as I scroll to keep my focus on where I'm reading and every time I accidentally trigger these.
I hate those things, I often highlight as I scroll to keep my focus on where I'm reading and every time I accidentally trigger these.
I am really saddened to read of this purchase.
Apture breaks the web in many ways. As you note it screws up and steals/hijacks mouse behavior. It also round trips to their servers any selection you make, making it a privacy leak. They make it hard to opt-out of their javascript menace, and it clutters up a page.
"a browser extension" if it were solely a browser extension I wouldn't mind it so much. The behavior that is most borrowsome is the stuff they license to folks like the NYTimes, the Apture Hotspots.
Apture breaks the web in many ways. As you note it screws up and steals/hijacks mouse behavior. It also round trips to their servers any selection you make, making it a privacy leak. They make it hard to opt-out of their javascript menace, and it clutters up a page.
"a browser extension" if it were solely a browser extension I wouldn't mind it so much. The behavior that is most borrowsome is the stuff they license to folks like the NYTimes, the Apture Hotspots.
One of the reasons I finally gave in to Adblock+ was as a convenient means of implementing a filter against the JS that perpetrates that NYT annoyance.
My concern is as to if/when this gets rolled into core Chrome. As long as the functionality is loading over the wire, I'll remain hopeful that I can block it and that sites will remain usable in that state. If it's an extention or plug in that I can disable, I can live with that as well, I guess. If it's baked in... Well, I guess it won't be baked into Firefox et al.
I don't mind useful, opt-in lookup features. For example, the Babelfish Firefox extension that does select and click translation. But such features continue to be killed off. I suspect initiatives like this purchase are instead intended more to "game" me into further staying/interacting with "blessed" sites and their subsidiary or partner content.
It's their content, I guess. But I'll probably "opt out".
My concern is as to if/when this gets rolled into core Chrome. As long as the functionality is loading over the wire, I'll remain hopeful that I can block it and that sites will remain usable in that state. If it's an extention or plug in that I can disable, I can live with that as well, I guess. If it's baked in... Well, I guess it won't be baked into Firefox et al.
I don't mind useful, opt-in lookup features. For example, the Babelfish Firefox extension that does select and click translation. But such features continue to be killed off. I suspect initiatives like this purchase are instead intended more to "game" me into further staying/interacting with "blessed" sites and their subsidiary or partner content.
It's their content, I guess. But I'll probably "opt out".
Google takes one step closer to becoming skynet and GLaDOS.
Apture Science, we do what we can because we must.
Apture Science, we do what we can because we must.
Larry Johnson and Cave Brin
Congrats to the Apture team.
But to be honest, I never found sites having Apture useful. It kind of distracted me in many ways.
I hate anything that puts underlines / icons into the texts I'm reading. Not to mention, it is borderline spamvertisement and even virus-like.
I hate anything that puts underlines / icons into the texts I'm reading. Not to mention, it is borderline spamvertisement and even virus-like.
I wish someone would track which kind of acquisition is made and let me track it by acquiring company. From my limited vantage point, Google seems to make mostly talent acquisitions and that generally makes me sad.
Anyone know which this was?