Explanations of a few types of HITs I've seen people wonder about.
Receipts
Receipt data entry ('transcription') HITs are for apps that consumers take photos of their receipts in, because:
- consumers get rebates or points for purchasing specific products at specific times/places
- manufacturers/marketers pay small amounts for any receipt uploads, using the data to understand what people buy
- some track purchases for personal/business expense records, or to build shopping lists
Jon Brelig = InfoScout Inc, which owns a bunch of receipt apps: Shoparoo, Receipt Hog, Out Of Milk, ReceiptBin, Receipt Lottery
411Richmond = Checkout51 app
Zing = Ibotta app
Shopping and Shopping Receipts US = Israel-based Zollo Social Shopping Ltd., with apps including Zollo, ShopPrize, OurCart
RI Services (Masters-only) = OneReceipt app
Vishwanath Kumar = SnapSaves app, now 'Snap by Groupon'
(some other smaller requesters of this type pop up occasionally)
Business Cards
Business card data entry HITs are for apps to populate a businessperson's contacts list with info from people they meet and receive business cards from, but are too busy or lazy to type it all into their phone themselves.
Jimmy Dragon = FullContact app (more info)
(some other smaller requesters of this type pop up occasionally)
Voice Recording
These are usually, but not always, to help train a voice recognition system with more examples.
Project Endor (Jamelio) = 'OK Google' voice commands for Google Search, Android, Chrome, Glass, possibly some upcoming 'robot'...
Search HITs
HITs telling you to search for specific keywords, then click on specific links in certain positions in the results and tell them specific things about the page, aren't really because the requester needs to know that stuff - it's usually pretty obvious that they already know it, to be able to write the HIT that way. They're 'SEO' HITs (search engine optimization), trying to influence the search engine's algorithms, and the questions about the page are for them to verify you went to their webpage. They are technically against the MTurk ToS for the requester to post them, but they're generally harmless to workers.
Sign Up For Offers
These are scams - ToS violations that can harm the worker. Stay away. They either reject your HIT, send you into a bottomless pit of redirected signups where you never get what you needed to submit the HIT, or have a fake submit button (no way to submit it). And as a parting gift, you'll get lots of spam, and sometimes even identity theft, stolen accounts, etc. MTurk used to be relatively free of these scum, compared to some of the lesser sites like MTurk, but it's gotten pretty bad over the last few months.
Receipts
Receipt data entry ('transcription') HITs are for apps that consumers take photos of their receipts in, because:
- consumers get rebates or points for purchasing specific products at specific times/places
- manufacturers/marketers pay small amounts for any receipt uploads, using the data to understand what people buy
- some track purchases for personal/business expense records, or to build shopping lists
Jon Brelig = InfoScout Inc, which owns a bunch of receipt apps: Shoparoo, Receipt Hog, Out Of Milk, ReceiptBin, Receipt Lottery
411Richmond = Checkout51 app
Zing = Ibotta app
Shopping and Shopping Receipts US = Israel-based Zollo Social Shopping Ltd., with apps including Zollo, ShopPrize, OurCart
RI Services (Masters-only) = OneReceipt app
Vishwanath Kumar = SnapSaves app, now 'Snap by Groupon'
(some other smaller requesters of this type pop up occasionally)
Business Cards
Business card data entry HITs are for apps to populate a businessperson's contacts list with info from people they meet and receive business cards from, but are too busy or lazy to type it all into their phone themselves.
Jimmy Dragon = FullContact app (more info)
(some other smaller requesters of this type pop up occasionally)
Voice Recording
These are usually, but not always, to help train a voice recognition system with more examples.
Project Endor (Jamelio) = 'OK Google' voice commands for Google Search, Android, Chrome, Glass, possibly some upcoming 'robot'...
Search HITs
HITs telling you to search for specific keywords, then click on specific links in certain positions in the results and tell them specific things about the page, aren't really because the requester needs to know that stuff - it's usually pretty obvious that they already know it, to be able to write the HIT that way. They're 'SEO' HITs (search engine optimization), trying to influence the search engine's algorithms, and the questions about the page are for them to verify you went to their webpage. They are technically against the MTurk ToS for the requester to post them, but they're generally harmless to workers.
Sign Up For Offers
These are scams - ToS violations that can harm the worker. Stay away. They either reject your HIT, send you into a bottomless pit of redirected signups where you never get what you needed to submit the HIT, or have a fake submit button (no way to submit it). And as a parting gift, you'll get lots of spam, and sometimes even identity theft, stolen accounts, etc. MTurk used to be relatively free of these scum, compared to some of the lesser sites like MTurk, but it's gotten pretty bad over the last few months.
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