I just love free. Who doesn't? I mean, if a friend walks up to you and offers to shovel your walks during a freak snow storm, would you really turn down the offer?
That being said, is free always free or are there obligations associated with the "freeness?" In the above example, would the friend require anything for his service (i.e. hot chocolate, or return of the favor some day) or is it just that, service?
In the business world, free is a term that is used liberally to mean upfront no catches but we'll get you eventually. Do you remember the days of NetZero and free dial-up? One could argue that the service was free, with the annoying ad banners. But in the long haul, especially when we got a taste for speedier services, we longed for bigger pipes and were willing to pay just a little more. So free amounted to long term connection addiction and eventually an adulterous affair (or at a minimum cohabitation) with the Internet.
Today's example of something that is marketed as free but really isn't was a deal I scored that originated on slickdeals.net (yes, R, you can sigh now). The offer was from GoDaddy.com and IndyCar. If you subscribe to the newsletter (not sure what all that entails just yet) you are awarded with a free domain purchase. Free!!!
The catch? Spam from IndyCar newsletter. And possibly they sell off your e-mail and your spam filter goes into overdrive.
But come on, a free domain? That's how I scored my first domain, grecca.com (which is currently offline and has been for 1.5 yrs do to a domain transfer to godaddy.com). I like free and if it means having to put gmail to work to filter out the newsletter and any other sluff that may creep into my precious 7 GB email account then so be it.
That being said, is free always free or are there obligations associated with the "freeness?" In the above example, would the friend require anything for his service (i.e. hot chocolate, or return of the favor some day) or is it just that, service?
In the business world, free is a term that is used liberally to mean upfront no catches but we'll get you eventually. Do you remember the days of NetZero and free dial-up? One could argue that the service was free, with the annoying ad banners. But in the long haul, especially when we got a taste for speedier services, we longed for bigger pipes and were willing to pay just a little more. So free amounted to long term connection addiction and eventually an adulterous affair (or at a minimum cohabitation) with the Internet.
Today's example of something that is marketed as free but really isn't was a deal I scored that originated on slickdeals.net (yes, R, you can sigh now). The offer was from GoDaddy.com and IndyCar. If you subscribe to the newsletter (not sure what all that entails just yet) you are awarded with a free domain purchase. Free!!!The catch? Spam from IndyCar newsletter. And possibly they sell off your e-mail and your spam filter goes into overdrive.
But come on, a free domain? That's how I scored my first domain, grecca.com (which is currently offline and has been for 1.5 yrs do to a domain transfer to godaddy.com). I like free and if it means having to put gmail to work to filter out the newsletter and any other sluff that may creep into my precious 7 GB email account then so be it.
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