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AdBlock Plus retools its service to pay sites you visit most
Last year, we covered Flattr, AdBlock Plus' endeavor to help you pay the sites you visit most often. Now, the company is relaunching the tool and billing it as what the team had imagined when they first conceived of the project. Flattr 2.0 is a browser extension that works with an algorithm and a subscription to automatically figure out how much to pay the websites you love. Previously, the service was in a private beta, but now it's available to the public.
AdBlock Plus wants to help you pay the sites you visit most
With hundreds of millions of internet users choosing to block ads, publishers are being forced to adopt new strategies to survive. Paywalls are one option, but they often put off readers who wish to visit a website just to read one article. As companies scramble to provide a middle ground between subscriptions and pay-per-story services, an unlikely new challenger has emerged: AdBlock Plus. Known for its browser apps and extensions, the service has teamed up with micro-transaction specialist Flattr to let people pay the publishers they visit most regularly.
Flattr micropayments move to mobile with Android app
The Flattr micropayment system is moving from a web-only experience to the real world. Of course, you may now be asking yourself: what the heck is Flattr? Well, Flattr is a payment service whereby you pay a small monthly fee -- decided by you -- and that amount is divvied up between anybody you Flattr online in any particular month. Using QR Codes, users of the app can now quickly scan and then Flattr anything anybody takes the time to plop a sticker with their code on it -- think art in cafes, blog posts (ahem), street musicians, and so on. Now that the leap to Android is complete, we were stoked to see mention in the Flattr forums of interest in having this wander over to iPhone. Sure, Flattr definitely isn't as widely accepted as say, PayPal, but with this move to mobile platforms -- and the oh-so-fun-and-easy way to drop a shiney penny on whatever grabs your interest -- maybe it'll gradually find its way into your stone cold hearts wallets.
