Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: New Third Voice version out
Author: Larry Rosenstein Posted: 9/15/1999; 3:54:05 PM Topic: New Third Voice version out Msg #: 11093 (In response to 11014) Prev/Next: 11092 / 11094
>>they have the user download a proxy server, much like Junkbusters.This is a good technical move for them. As a plugin, it seemed too dependent on the exact implementation of the browser.
>>It now appears that anybody who wants to (as Third Voice has no particular status) can present a proxy server for download, intercept any of your pages they choose, and make arbitrary modifications along
This kind of "transcoding" can be useful to (say) automatically format a web page for display on a Palm Pilot or cell phone.
>>To head off the only objection I can think of, "What of Junkbusters? Why is it OK and not Third Voice?", my answer is that I have never considered "removal" to be as bad as modification.
This seems like a weak rationalization. Stripping off banner ads would seem to be a significant modification to a site.
>>as Doubleclick.net saying that the blockers aren't big enough to worry about yet, and the people blocking aren't likely customers
That's because JunkBusters isn't as easy to install or as well-known. But I seem to remember that several months ago some developer dropped plans to release a similar product after complaints.
>>(If you don't find this disturbing at all, could you please tell me why not? This is honest... I don't understand. Am I being too
Certainly, it's disturbing from the point of view of being another piece of software that might have unknown side effects. But so is Java/JavaScript/ActiveX/... that's built into the popular browsers.
I don't find it any more disturbing than these things, however. But then I don't find Third Voice disturbing in general. (I don't view it as a copyright violation; I think it's "fair use" to take content off a public web site and reformat it for personal use.)
It will become a technical problem if more companies do something like this. (Imaging if each web page has to pass through 5+ proxys on the way to the screen?)
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