Zeta Global acquires Disqus (YC S07)
>Disqus gives these marketers the ability to target users based on their interests. You can infer quite a bit about people simply based on which sites they comment on, after all.<p>So we can expect more targeted ads in Disqus embeds from mining user patterns. The platform is a already a mess; between making 105 network requests to 20+ domains associated with tracking, malware, ad platforms, and shady fingerprinting services, and the fact that adding Disqus costs you upwards of 6 seconds [0], this announcement is making things more user-hostile.<p>Disclosure: I created an open-source, privacy-focused alternative called Commento [1] so my views on Disqus might be somewhat biased :)<p>I will also be offering it as a subscription-based service very soon as many people have asked me for one (the open source version will stay free software forever). It'll have near feature-parity with Disqus and you'll have the option to import all your Disqus comments. If you're interested in beta-testing, please let me know (email in profile). Apologies if I'm breaking HN etiquette.<p>[0] <a href="http://donw.io/post/github-comments/" rel="nofollow">http://donw.io/post/github-comments/</a><p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/adtac/commento" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/adtac/commento</a>