alt Hacker News0.21% sounds low but my initial thought is "I don't know if they are making the point they think they are". Conversion rates are always pretty low.
That said, I've never clicked on a share button mostly because:
- I don't know what it will do, it's not consistent at all
- It might add extra crap "Your friend shared 'Story Title' with you!"
- It will probably try/want to add tracking crap
I always just copy the URL and send it however I want to send it. People aren't stupid when it comes to sharing, they understand how to accomplish what they want, we don't need a dedicated share button.
What we don't have, and hopefully never will, is the number of people who click the share button verses the people that copy/paste the URL which I assume 90% of people who want to share do. It's universal, it "just works".
Clicking the share button means I'm at the mercy of the site operator, copying the URL puts me in control.
Replies
Exactly but companies have started hijacking the copy icon button as well. You’d think that would just copy what’s in the text box, but they add tracking and other stuff.
The worst is the YouTube share button. You can share the button with the exact second mark in the video and I would do that. Then one time I noticed the URL was shortened and added a lot of tracking.
I agree, I do the same thing, but e.g. my parents still don't understand copy&paste. For all of us who do, there's the other ~half (total guess) of people who don't, and will benefit from the share UI. It's sad but real.
> a 2023 peer-reviewed survey of 124 geriatric computer users, mean age about 80.6, found that 59% were unfamiliar with the copy/paste function. That is among older adults who were already computer users, so it probably understates the issue for all elderly people.