Why Color is overrated

http://bogdanbocse.com/2011/05/why-color-com-is-overrated/

by philipDS • 15 years ago

7 11 15 years ago

shssince1985• 15 years ago

It is overrated, because we keep posting about it, on this site and discussions.

raganwald• 15 years ago

Couldn't I could make the same argument about flickr.com? I take a picture. I call it "drinks after a bike ride." I tag it with "Pina Colada Bar." I make it public. How long before Mrs. James sees the picture? One in a million shot, right?

What privacy problem does color.com have that doesn't apply to flickr.com?

ocharles• 15 years ago

Probably the fact that Mrs. James has to search to find the picture on Flickr but the data is given to her with Color. Mrs. James only needs to be at the bar using Color and the images come straight to her. I see it as a subtle, but pretty substantial difference.

Terretta• 15 years ago

Hs position is that Color's value proposition kicks in when everyone's taking pictures all the time, blanketing every venue with visual documentation -- more photos, not better photos.

Flickr's value proposition is interestingness, not total coverage. Further, Flickr has three privacy layers, resulting in most night-on-the-town scenarios being Friends-only.

He made this point with his odds argument. Odds on Flickr might be one in a million, but Color wants users to take a million photos, making the odds one in one.

wattsbaat2• 15 years ago

For the stated example of an adulterous husband on a business trip, you're right. The odds are low of Mrs. James finding it. But since pictures are grouped by physical location instead of residing in some stranger's flickr account, people are very likely to see people they know in cases when long-distance travel is not involved.

Is this a privacy issue? Strictly speaking, I don't think it is any less legal than flickr (but IANAL). But it definitely pushes the boundaries when it comes to thinking about your own personal privacy.

swombat• 15 years ago

First of all, there's no infringement of privacy if someone takes a picture of you in a public place. If you didn't want anyone to know about it, you shouldn't have gone to a public fricken bar with your adulterous date. If you're that guy who gets caught, sucks to be you. Don't cheat on your wife next time - or if you do, do it in private. What if it was one of your wife's friends who spotted you? Would you sue her? Big fat chance.

Secondly, that's not a one in a million chance. Unless his wife is a god damn social media photo site addict, it's more like a zero chance. Why would she stumble on that picture, ever? Unless, perhaps, she goes to the same bar and looks through the hundreds of pictures taken there. But now you're not talking random chance, you're talking determined digging (or complete and utter stupidity on the part of the cheating husband).

Thirdly, I hardly know anyone who's been talking about color.com anyway. That's probably the biggest problem they have, rather than the rare occasion when someone may be caught out in the background of a photo.

bane• 15 years ago

Considering that I've never once seen something nice said about Color, overrated is hardly the word I'd use...unless we should all just start relentlessly hating on it.

jchonphoenix• 15 years ago

Um... If Color is overrated, does that mean it deserves negative points?

peterzakin• 15 years ago

The privacy problem is not going to be what kills Color. Having a privacy problem to solve likely presupposes that they've been successful.

georgieporgie• 15 years ago

If the risk hinges on millions of pictures flooding in, then James isn't really at any elevated risk since he's in a handful of said millions of pictures.

The only way Color makes things worse for James is if his wife knew he was at said bar on a previous night (i.e. she can't just show up in person) and sifts through those images. Or if Color employs amazing facial recognition and data aggregation to provide his wife a constant stream of James pictures.

I thought this was going to be about Hot Young Things inadvertently sharing nip slips with nearby Creepy Old Guys.

wattsbaat2• 15 years ago

As a side note, this type of documentation of the physical world should get interesting when paired with projects like Microsoft Photosynth. (I'm sure there are other similar projects.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p16frKJLVi0 Something along these lines will make Google Streetview look quaint in a few years. (Although Google will probably be involved in mapping the world in 3D as well.)

Why Color is overrated

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