Me too. And I think there is a marketing angle to it. When their green energy output rises to the point of their search infrastrucutre consumption level, they can use that as marketing ammunition. Would you rather search on carbon-powered search engine or green-powered Google search? At their scale, even a tiny percentage point rise / defended in market share will add up over time to recoup (part of) the investment.
Different product class and/or different product altogether. Think BMW or Merc and many other good quality brands that are well marketed. Different buyers. And yes there are a lot of rich buyers outside US.
First, personally, I think the use of "oversight" as the reason is oversimplifying. You need more than one "oversight" for this to happen the way it has evolved until caught red handed. And the collective of them looks "weird".
Second, I sincerely agree that I would love to see Posterous earn a profit for such a great service. But "free is free", not "free if I exploit the links on your blog unaware to you". The blog content is the property of the blog owner (except if the owner explicitly makes it public property). I do not think it wise for Posterous to earn income from the blog content without the blog owner's explicit permission.
Third, the response from Posterous does not make it clear the plan to rectify the issue - it is just an apology. The apropriate response, I think, VigLink should be disabled immediately for all blogs. Then each blog owner can be given the option to either opt in (and hopefully gets a cut) or take their content elsewhere.
To those who think that faucets are supposed to be like double-doors, I understand, but usability is not always about idealism or philosophy. Sometimes it's about consistency. If most faucets operate one way, wrongly or rightly, then doing it differently forces the users to do it wrong the first time (or first few times) he/she uses the product.
The book that comes to mind is "Don't make me think" by Steve Krug. He did not advocate perpetuating "wrong" convention, but the point is still valid: don't waste the user's time by designing something to behave differently than "expected".
Generally, I would think so. Not so much from the perspective of "risk taking" as other commenter mentioned but more so from administrative effort and business cost / break even analysis.
"Risk taking" is, in my opinion, relatively independent of cost or administrative overhead. Some people would simply not start up any company even when the break even analysis is good. Whereas others would jump on a given opportunity, taking the risk that he / she can do better than the break even analysis.
"Thriving" for the short term, maybe, depending on how you define "thriving". Sustainably profitable for the long term, is still difficult to forecast.
Posterous is great for this because it handles photos and videos simply and effectively - a favorite for families. You cannot customise the look yet though. It's much simpler than Ning so non net savvy users have less chance to get lost. Good luck.
I searched by "ingredients" and got a selection of recipes, but when I used the exact same search term on "keyword" search, I got nada.
I understand the difference, but you know the gold standard. I suggest to "emulate" Google: one search box only please.
As a cook myself, I like the idea, but honestly, I don't see how the pay model will be popular. I can do exactly the same thing in Google if I enter the exact search term as for your web site, and then add the word "recipe" to the search term. And other recipe sites will do as well. So I am not sure how you can get away from ad-supported revenue model. Good luck nonetheless.
BTW, I agree about the logo comment. Maybe you can try to change the web site name or create a cute story about why use the "puppy".
Additionally, transformation of everyday electronic devices into low-power consuming devices, and for this, I think nanotechnology will help us get there.