Revenue generating features in Pidgin

[Mark Doliner]

Someone from Ask.com contacted us and asked if we'd considered adding any sort
of revenue generating features into Pidgin.  He didn't go into specifics.  If
I had to speculate on what's possible these two features come to mind:

1. Add a little search bar to the bottom of the buddy list or something that
performs a search.  If lots of people perform searches (and maybe click on ads
in the search results?) then we're given small kickbacks.

2. Similar to the above, but we could link random words in IM conversations to
search results pages.

Any revenue generated would probably go to the Instant Messaging Freedom
Foundation, since it's pretty much impossible to divide incoming among
Pidgin's developers.

I'm basically against adding those features, since I don't think users really
benefit from them.  But I didn't want to be the sole decision maker, so I
figured I'd see how other people felt.  And of course, if you have other ideas
on ways to generate revenue that you think would benefit Pidgin users then by
all means share with us.

-Mark