DISQUS

Spot on analysis. Retention is definitely key, especially for the premium model. If, say, your free users take 3 months to garner up the need to purchase a premium upgrade, then it's pretty simple math that you have to keep them around that long in the first place.

What's harder to measure is the less-linear effects of retention, for example, sharing. Folks invite others to join up so they can share with them. The more people that join, the easier the sharer's life gets. If those new users aren't sticking around, your service becomes less useful to your original sharer. A low retention could easily kick off a downward spiral here.

Good job pulling together all the site descriptions. Cheers!

Glad to have you as a client, and not a competitor. [cheers!]

@Eric
I talk to folks about passwords daily (it comes with the job I suppose) and I'm still amazed at how many people reuse the same login/password for every account. I used to think that at least among the web-savvy crowds like designers and online marketers that this was a known no-no. But I was wrong.

Glad to hear you're an illuminated password man Eric.

@Spencer
most of these sits have some sort of public facing profile page. You can probably try Googling your email or favorite username. That should pull up any forgotten-about accounts.

@Simon - No, Passpack can not see passwords, nor can it access any of your accounts.

You should *always* use a different, unique password for every website. Folks, you need o be protected.

Choose, and use, a password manager.

[discolsure: I'm a Passpack co-founder... but I don't care what product you choose, just get protected!]

"but even in science, errors of human psychology can creep back in"
--> Indeed, in *anything* errors of human psychology can creep back in.

Fascinating read.

Or use a password manager which generates random passwords for you (so thery are strong) and stores them as well (so you don't have to remember them).

:) Just my biased 2cents.
Cheers!

Tara Kelly
Passpack founding partner

Poor guy is always getting pounded on.

LOL. You're in my reader, but I guess I haven't commented until now. Anyhoo, I'm a WP plugin junkie. Thanks for the kudos and congrats. Cheers!

ooooh. WP-Bling :) Thank you.

For organizing passwords - http://passpack.com

My ideal job candidate will write em a short email with a personal introduction, and a link to their LinkedIN Profile. The email lets me know why they are interested specifically in working at Passpack and highlight really relevant experience - for the rest of the "CV" I know that since the profile is publicly available, they aren't going to be fudging past experiences (YES, people really do this).

I just discovered Jott recently (I know, I'm slow) through the Webware 100 Awards. It looks absolutely fabulous.

This is a biased suggestions since I'm a PassPack founder -- but have you tried adding a password manager to your setup? It helps declutter your mind (no remembering logins) and saves time (no typing them either).

Check passwords off the to-do list

Hope thats useful.

Cheers,

Tara

Thanks Adam! We're working on it. Expect a version 1.0 to be out before the summer's end.

Your passwords are always encrypted *in the browser* before getting sent back to the server.

Here is a nutshell description of how it works:
http://passpack.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/how-pa...

That needs to be updated as we just released a new version, but the basic concepts still hold true.

Let me know if you have questions.

Denny, the nice part about Host-Proof Hosting is that it runs using Javascript in the browser.

If you want to watch what is getting sent back and forth to the server, you can trace the Javascript in action. Tools like Firebug do this very well.

Also, since it's javascript, you can simply download the .js files and have a look of you'd like. Passpack optimizes the files to be faster online, but you can use the depacker here: http://www.passpack.com/info/thanks/

You're welcome to study the code. We don't release it as open source because we don't want copy-cat products popping up, that's all.

Yes and No.

The Freemium model can be easily decoupled from advertising. And not all Web 2.0 is social media. Sharing, community built content/data and the right to data portability can exist even outside the "I'm here to socialize" context.

So when analyzing the Freemium model, you'll need to look at the various combinations available:

1. Freemium | Advertising | Social
2. Freemium | Advertising | NO Social
3. Freemium | NO advertising | Social
4. Freemium | NO advertising | NO Social

The "cons" set forth in this article only address problems with advertising (#1 or #2 above).

My company is a #4 - a pure Freemium play, no advertising, and we're not a social network. We're a password utility, just like Carbonite is storage utility. For products where there is a clear upsell on premium services it really is just about finding the right balance between free and not.

It'd be interesting to attempt an analysis of the pros & cons of Freemium when advertising isn't a factor.

And... stop reusing your passwords across multiple sites.

So even if you do accidentally get caught in the phishing net - only one account will be compromised, not all.

Two thumbs up - even, three, or four - no FIVE thumbs up for supporting instant messaging protocols.

Hi Bob!

Lack of data portability = vendor lock-in.

It's a nasty tactic by companies to force feed fidelity to their consumers instead of building loyalty based on quality. Data Portability makes good business sense.

@Idiocracy
Pen and paper don't cut it. Try a password manager:

http://tinyurl.com/38jxny

Cheers,
Tara

The sandbox theme is a designers dream. I've got our blog on wordpress.com, and just pay $15 a year to add custom CSS.

It's amazing.

With Sandbox + CSS, our blog looks identical to our site.

I live in Italy, so the espresso here is real [evil grin] so when visiting the US, I prefer American coffee.

I like go to a place where I can order a "regular coffee" and they know that means a little milk, a little sugar... Starbucks staff just stares at me blankly.

@Jon
I believe he thinks online password management in *general* is a bad idea. Personally, I disagree. That's of course because I run one - PassPack.

But yes, you are correct both Clipperz and PassPack encrypt the data in the browser before it gets sent to the servers for storage.

The pattern is called Host-Proof Hosting:
http://ajaxpatterns.org/Host-Proof_Hosting#Solu...

Cheers,
Tara - PassPack Founding Partner