Mostly Technical 57: 10,000 Pennies
Nov 5, 2024
Ian hosts Matt Swanson, a software developer and CTO at Arrows, for an enlightening chat. They discuss the future of Gravatar amidst privacy concerns, and the financial realities of entrepreneurship versus stable jobs. Matt shares insights into the challenges of being a CTO and forming platform partnerships, particularly with HubSpot. The conversation takes a lighter turn with playful ideas about personalized pennies and even brainstorming a comedy podcast for developers. Expect humor blended with valuable tech perspectives!
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Gravatar's Rise and Shift
- Gravatar, started in early 2000s and acquired by Automatic in 2007, served 20 billion requests per day at its peak.
- Privacy backlash and changes made it shift towards a light profile/payment page, moving away from original avatar use.
Company Logos Over Personal Avatars
- Instead of personal avatars, using company logos and brand colors can provide useful visual identity in B2B apps.
- Services scrape domain data to extract logos but solutions aren't perfect yet.
Day One Trust Issues Persist
- Some legacy services like Day One journaling app are now owned by Automatic, causing trust issues.
- There's a lack of confident alternatives, leaving users stuck with possibly less secure options.