Delete this ads in the wild

Delete this Tivo?
Originally uploaded by precipice.

Looks like the TiVo ads on the delete screen went live.

Unrelated, but also interesting TiVo find at flickr: A crazy nice Porsche with TIVO 1 plates (is it the current CEO's? Or maybe founder Mike Ramsay's?)

Comments

[Fazal Majid]

Vomit-inducing stuff like this is why I am quite happy I ditched TiVo for EyeTV a long time ago.

As the wisdom of ages states, a man cannot serve two masters. Neither can a company.

[Joshua Ochs]

Yawn. That's nowhere near as distracting and invasive as I had expected. The Tivo interface *still* trumps other DVRs after all this time, and the functionality should be brought back up to par once Tivo Desktop 2.4 comes out (for BOTH platforms, dangit!).

Meanwhile, another reason to hack your Tivo, and load a nice 7.3 image on it - or run a cron script to delete the ad tokens.

[Stephen Mack]

Yes, the TiVo-1 Porsche is co-founder Mike Ramsay's car.

[Nate]

I noticed one of these the other day. It was surprising, but not at all distracting. It's just a link to a showcase item. "Delete Now" is still the default menu item.

Also, I really like how the new delete screen looks. The black overlay is nice and the rewording is far more clear.

[Scott H]

I have a feeling [CHECK OUT THE NEW BURGER KING SANDWICH!] that we'll be seeing [DRIVE THE NEW LINCOLN NAVIGATOR!] more and more of these things [JIM CARREY'S NEW MOVIE!] creeping all over the TiVo interface [MOUNTAIN DEW DOES NOT TASTE LIKE SWILL!] as time goes on.

[MegaZone]

What a surprise, people making slippery slope arguments. That's new. *yawn*

Anyway, there is a much clearer picture posted over at TiVoCommunity.com: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4661519&&#post4661519

[Bill]

I've had this on my Tivo for a few days now and honestly I thought the ad was something in the background screen. It isn't something that is noticeable at all and if you've been using a Tivo for a while you probably automatically push up and select all in one movement and will never see these things.

[much ado about nothing]

I remember when the first Google ads showed up. Oh, the weeping and gnashing of teeth! Oh, the rending of garments! The ads were completely unobtrusive, and they helped Google become a giant, profitable company. And here it is many years later, and the ads are still unobtrusive.

TiVo is no different. These slippery slope arguments always assume that TiVo is some kind of monopoly forcing its ads on people. Absurd. The ads will stay unobtrusive (and hopefully become more targeted) because TiVo can no more afford to drive away its customers than Google can.

But some people would rather see their favorite companies go bankrupt than see an ad, no matter how unobtrusive, no matter if it is actually targetted towards their interests.