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throwaway727255 · 2021-11-08 18:45:39

They're informing us about the performance of different kinds of advertisements, which helps us focus our money on the ones that count, which I can't deny is a pretty big value-add. I don't know of any direct alternatives for doing that.

adrr | karma 6800 | avg karma 2.66 · | 2021-02-01 17:58:46+00:00

More relevant ads would be the benefit for the user.

ipsum2 | karma 6758 | avg karma 4.92 · | 2019-01-25 01:08:07+00:00

Would you prefer to see irrelevant ads instead?

SmellyGeekBoy | karma 6339 | avg karma 2.36 · | 2018-09-17 14:11:01+00:00

Or just show ads relevant to the content? What better indicator of what the user is interested in right now?

janalsncm | karma 6246 | avg karma 3.1 · | 2023-09-19 14:58:01

Another second-order benefit is the fact that innovation in ad tech has bled over into other kinds of content recommendation. If you can figure out which ads I would likely click on, you can also probably figure out what news stories I’m interested in.

That being said, while ads may improve certain kinds of content, it is strictly negative for other kinds. For example, pretty much every kind of ad online which is intrusive. It’s intrusive because it’s not wanted. I don’t want a full screen Dior ad in the middle of an article about the auto worker strike.

So sometimes the interests of advertisers and users are aligned, but many times they are not. And ad tech companies know which kinds of content are improved with ads and which damage the user experience. They could measure this if they wanted. But because they are trying to maximize ad revenue rather than user experience, so the ads win.

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wadkar | karma 328 | avg karma 1.33 · | 2018-01-09 15:05:09+00:00

Good point, the ads could be content driven rather than user profile driven.

nxpnsv | karma 1168 | avg karma 1.7 · | 2020-02-05 06:21:20+00:00

There are other less invasive ways to advertise.

benologist | karma 12061 | avg karma 2.51 · | 2014-02-16 03:21:49+00:00

More honest about what the ads are and more useful.

smackfu | karma 10800 | avg karma 2.37 · | 2014-04-25 14:30:41

I would hope that ads are generally useful to the people placing them.

cjg | karma 3849 | avg karma 5.95 · | 2010-09-01 13:01:55+00:00

I like their idea of making the area where they have ads occasionally show something else that might be of interest to persuade people to look even when there are ads.

dahwolf | karma 2587 | avg karma 4.96 · | 2023-07-13 15:28:27

The alternative is context-sensitive ads based on surrounding context.

jarenmf | karma 880 | avg karma 5.3 · | 2021-05-06 21:28:55+00:00

I think it's a valid point for discussion but they deliver the ads through a different mechanism (system notifications). So it's a bit different than replacing the ads of other web pages.

legohead | karma 3303 | avg karma 3.48 · | 2014-02-28 21:14:31+00:00

what do you suggest in place of ads?

kakarot | karma 1527 | avg karma 1.01 · | 2017-04-12 06:50:07

Good point. And I guess the answer is, the content is there to lead you to advertisements :)

Blikkentrekker | karma 1363 | avg karma 1.0 · | 2021-01-26 10:53:54

And it's more commercially effective to be more specific than that and take the reader's profile into account.

It's also not a zero sum at all. An advertisement that is not within the user's interest is wasted, rather than going to the competitor.

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hahainternet | karma 1457 | avg karma 1.72 · | 2015-10-18 18:31:16+00:00

They explicitly state 'more useful'. That is the metric they are using, better ads are ads which are more useful.

For example. Until a day or two I did not know the 'MX Master' mouse existed. An advert for this would have been useful.

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DEADBEEFC0FFEE | karma 603 | avg karma 1.73 · | 2020-08-30 11:01:45+00:00

I don't really understand why people don't seem to want tailored ads. All ads interupt attention, better that they have a chance if being useful.

itronitron | karma 6979 | avg karma 1.95 · | 2024-04-11 10:09:50

How else are you going to see relevant ads?

Singletoned | karma 606 | avg karma 2.89 · | 2016-06-14 14:07:48+00:00

I agree that advertising at the moment is an anti-feature, but it is at least theoretically possible that an advert could be of benefit to a user.

If advertising were to reach the quality and targettedness that they were telling you about things you genuinely wanted, it would be a useful service. Kind of like advertising as a recommendation engine. That would be quite people centric.

I don't think we will get there though.

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kiriakasis | karma 408 | avg karma 1.31 · | 2019-01-16 23:45:36+00:00

In this sense I would like it if site took advertisement more seriously. Asking feedback, allowing personalization, selecting a few "endorsed" ads (as a quick and cheap Boolean review).

For Google and Facebook it doesn't make sense, but for a newspaper i would expect some selection on the ads they show.

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