Re: ECON: Everything's free.

Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Tue, 09 Feb 1999 10:32:17 -0500

"Michael S. Lorrey" wrote:

> "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
>
> > Amazon.com, Jerry Kaplan and Bill Gross - in that order - have just
> > kicked the support struts out from under the entire U.S. economy.
> > snip.....
> >

RE: www.free-pc.com

> giving product away for free obviously means they are dumping product on the
> market to gain market share. Its so obviously illegal that I'm surprised that the
> feds aren't knocking on his door right now.

After examining the site, I've changed my mind. The advertising is installed as part of the explorer interface on win98, so the user is exposed to the ads the entire time they use the computer. I wouldn't doubt that this is highly valuable advertising space. I think he might do well by this. Being bombarded by the ads every minuteyou use the computer has got to be worth a LOT, especially since people are stuck in front of these things for so long. Its like locking someone in the bathroom with ONE magazine that has the same ads on every page.......gotta have a significant impact on their buying habits.

Mike Lorrey