.

[420]

he doesn't even understand. news flash: bitcoin doesn't charge 23.99% APR on purchases

I'm confused. Neither do credit cards if you pay your balance each month. Are you an undischarged bankrupt?

why use his credit card if he could pay the fucker off. localbitcoins.com easier than buying bitcoins with a f'ing credit card

didn't know you were the one who made the original statement

Just read their press announcement. The bitcoin option isn't meant for users like you. This is for people who have trouble using CC and paypal. If it truly is cheaper they would be smart to offer a discount paying with that option. Like you said there are probably other issues like their contracts with the CC company though.

Sounds like it is mainly for marketing reasons then. Bitcoin, apparently, is hip.

totally hip

don't forget people who dont have credit cards but have laptops

Did they buy the laptop with bitcoins?  What ever happened to debit cards?

a comet hit the earth and made the debit cards extinct, remember? 1st grade stuff

[cunicula]

he doesn't even understand. news flash: bitcoin doesn't charge 23.99% APR on purchases

I'm confused. Neither do credit cards if you pay your balance each month. Are you an undischarged bankrupt?

why use his credit card if he could pay the fucker off. localbitcoins.com easier than buying bitcoins with a f'ing credit card

Hmm... Because the credit card company pays me to use its card, hoping that they can entice me into a usurious debt arrangement.

That is also a marketing scheme.

[Herodes]

lol, wordpress needs marketing? it's only like 90% of the blogs online uses it? it's unlikely for a user to know bitcoin, but unaware of wordpress. Bitcoin is far less well known compared to wordpress.

Established brand names need marketing too. How do you think one stays on top. Here's an example. Why did Google leave China?

Complacement is the enemy of any successful entity. There's no such thing as status quo. Either you regress, or you progress. There was a big car company in a nordic company that sold the most cars, and the management figured that everybody knew about them, so further marketing would be wasted. In less than 2 years, they lost their place as the most sold brand.

There's a reason why companies like Nike and Coca Cola uses so much money on marketing.

[thoughtfan]

More coverage on this story from American Banker and IEEE's Spectrum.  I particularly like Spectrum's analogy of the lonely school kid whose now hanging out with in crowd!

[kokojie]

lol, wordpress needs marketing? it's only like 90% of the blogs online uses it? it's unlikely for a user to know bitcoin, but unaware of wordpress. Bitcoin is far less well known compared to wordpress.

Established brand names need marketing too. How do you think one stays on top. Here's an example. Why did Google leave China?

Google left China because the Chinese government hate it, and actively ban its services, not because of any marketing reasons.

[nobbynobbynoob]

Google left China because the Chinese government hate it, and actively ban its services, not because of any marketing reasons.

There's still google.com.hk though, with google.cn linking to it.

[kokojie]

Google left China because the Chinese government hate it, and actively ban its services, not because of any marketing reasons.

There's still google.com.hk though, with google.cn linking to it.

The underlying services are still banned, no google cache or sensitive keywords, your connection will get reset by GFW.

[cunicula]

lol, wordpress needs marketing? it's only like 90% of the blogs online uses it? it's unlikely for a user to know bitcoin, but unaware of wordpress. Bitcoin is far less well known compared to wordpress.

Established brand names need marketing too. How do you think one stays on top. Here's an example. Why did Google leave China?

Google left China because the Chinese government hate it, and actively ban its services, not because of any marketing reasons.

Lol. Google refused to comply with the Chinese government. That refusal is marketing. You fell for it.

'If you want a free and open internet ...'

How do you think they get the American public to sign petitions that help google choose the rules?

[420]

sooo....i thought google helped China restrict the internet? they ended up not wanting to go along with all the chinese government's requests?

[cunicula]

sooo....i thought google helped China restrict the internet? they ended up not wanting to go along with all the chinese government's requests?

Yes, they did help out the Chinese gov't initially, then they changed their mind as the requests became more and more invasive.

[caveden]

sooo....i thought google helped China restrict the internet? they ended up not wanting to go along with all the chinese government's requests?

Yes, they did help out the Chinese gov't initially, then they changed their mind as the requests became more and more invasive.

Actually, they've changed their minds after they were attacked: http://googleblog.blogspot.fr/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

[Luno]

Actually, on slashdot a few months ago, Google announced that they made a filtering highlight add on that marked which search words that would trigger the great firewall. In that way Chinese will be able to circumvent the filtered keywords. Quite a bold move from a big company.

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

Actually, on slashdot a few months ago, Google announced that they made a filtering highlight add on that marked which search words that would trigger the great firewall. In that way Chinese will be able to circumvent the filtered keywords. Quite a bold move from a big company.

Yep, http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/06/01/1450204/google-highlights-censored-search-terms-in-china

Seems like Google seriously joined the fight against Internet censorship.

[cunicula]

Actually, on slashdot a few months ago, Google announced that they made a filtering highlight add on that marked which search words that would trigger the great firewall. In that way Chinese will be able to circumvent the filtered keywords. Quite a bold move from a big company.

Yep, http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/06/01/1450204/google-highlights-censored-search-terms-in-china

Seems like Google seriously joined the fight against Internet censorship.

This sounds nice, but it doesn't actually work. A huge number of common Chinese words lead to page errors (e.g. things like the character for river). Why? Because river happens to occur in the name of a political leader. There are so many key words to censor that even a commonplace search becomes infeasible. Moreover, everything is being filtered so pages take forever to load. This is different from censoring page results where they can just block out what they don't want you to see.

The Chinese government has essentially made google unusable in Chinese, causing all Chinese to switch to Baidu. English language google searches in mainland China work much better. The gov't doesn't care about censoring English language materials to anywhere near the same degree.

Again, Google's agenda here is marketing/PR in the US and Europe. While this is a nice gesture, it doesn't do anything effectual to help Chinese people use the internet.

[Luno]

Quote: "Actually, on slashdot a few months ago, Google announced that they made a filtering highlight add on that marked which search words that would trigger the great firewall. In that way Chinese will be able to circumvent the filtered keywords. Quite a bold move from a big company."

Well Cunicula, that cleared that up, I thought Google's trick worked.

Google should put up a Geo stationary wi-fi sat then.

[cunicula]

Quote: "Actually, on slashdot a few months ago, Google announced that they made a filtering highlight add on that marked which search words that would trigger the great firewall. In that way Chinese will be able to circumvent the filtered keywords. Quite a bold move from a big company."

Well Cunicula, that cleared that up, I thought Google's trick worked.

Google should put up a Geo stationary wi-fi sat then.

A VPN is the typical solution. Business needs 'em, so China can't block 'em.

[dancupid]

Just to get back on thread - wordpress is currently blocked in China (at least it is for me in Shanghai)

I can only see btctrading.wordpress.com if I use a VPN.

[Gabi]

sooo....i thought google helped China restrict the internet? they ended up not wanting to go along with all the chinese government's requests?

Yes, they did help out the Chinese gov't initially, then they changed their mind as the requests became more and more invasive.

Actually, they've changed their minds after they were attacked: http://googleblog.blogspot.fr/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

Wow, nice job Google! 

[kokojie]

lol, wordpress needs marketing? it's only like 90% of the blogs online uses it? it's unlikely for a user to know bitcoin, but unaware of wordpress. Bitcoin is far less well known compared to wordpress.

Established brand names need marketing too. How do you think one stays on top. Here's an example. Why did Google leave China?

Google left China because the Chinese government hate it, and actively ban its services, not because of any marketing reasons.

Lol. Google refused to comply with the Chinese government. That refusal is marketing. You fell for it.

'If you want a free and open internet ...'

How do you think they get the American public to sign petitions that help google choose the rules?

Give up and pull out from the 2nd largest economy in the world, for marketing? That doesn't sound right.

[fatman01923]

Man this is huge!!  Wow this will put a fire under Bitcoin's ass to start moving into mass adoption!!