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It's so funny to watch MSFT completely miss the lessons that have turned Google into the World's Most Valuable Advertising Business. HEY YOU GUYS LETS PLASTER

by aresant 11y ago

It's so funny to watch MSFT completely miss the lessons that have turned Google into the World's Most Valuable Advertising Business. HEY YOU GUYS LETS PLASTER ADVERTISING ALL OVER ALL OF THE THINGS! Look at Gmail: http://imgur.com/M8RF1TV http://imgur.com/M8RF1TV Look at Yahoo Mail: http://imgur.com/Cjwxspc http://imgur.com/Cjwxspc Look at AOL Mail: http://imgur.com/ZeaIe1L http://imgur.com/ZeaIe1L Which email product do you use? Which would you rather use? The advertising business that is sustainable is owning the user at a moment of high-intent, aka SEARCH. Slapping ads all over my login page is a great way render the fat from brand advertisers into short-term revenue gains at the price of ENRAGING me. MSFT get the tracking and the ads the fuck out of my kitchen and my OS or at least give me a REAL way to pay you for a clean, no ad version!

vlunkr 11y ago
Personally I wouldn't be willing to pay for an ad-free version of an OS that you are already paying for.
- the_hangman 11y ago
  What? Who paid for Windows 10? I thought Windows 10 is supposed to be free?
  - bad_user 11y ago
    I hope this is snark.
  - ebbv 11y ago
    It's only free to upgrade to it. If you buy/build a new PC you have to pay $100 (or more) for the privilege of being shown ads on your login page.
  - wongarsu 11y ago
    There's no way to get Windows 10 for free. Either you pay for an old version of Windows and upgrade or you buy Windows 10.
fnbr 11y ago
This is the exact reason why Google is so valuable- when I use Google, I'm actively searching for something, so I'm happy to see relevant ads in my search results. If I search "bike shop London," I want to find a bike shop in London, so if I see an ad for a bike shop in London, I'm ecstatic, and I'll probably go there. When I go to check my inbox, on the other hand, that's because I want to see what email I've received. I don't want to see ads there. This is the inherent problem with Facebook/Twitter- I go to Facebook/Twitter to find what my friends are up to, not to search for something. I have no interest in seeing ads in my Facebook/Twitter feed.
- pmalynin 11y ago
  I proactively do not click on adwords or suggested links or anything. In fact if I see an ad for bikes shops in London I will scroll down and click on the next link.
  - jgreen10 11y ago
    Why?
  - corndoge 11y ago
    Agreed. Clicking advertisements encourages advertising. Google's actual results are far more relevant than any paid placed advertisement anyway.
    - wongarsu 11y ago
      Clicking advertisements also helps to pay for the service you are using for free. In the case of google search the ads don't significantly diminish the product, so I'm happy to give google a bit of ad revenue.
      - wang_li 11y ago
        >Clicking advertisements also helps to pay for the service you are using for free. Yeah, well, I'm part of the 47% in this situation.
canistr 11y ago
Eh. I don't use Gmail because their login page is ad-free. I use it because my workflow is better. I was expecting your screenshot to show the minimized amount of ads within the inbox. But you could argue that Outlook is reasonably minimal, Gmail is only text, and Yahoo/AOL are panelled ads.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- alanh 11y ago
  You don’t see how advertising is a drag on workflow? It shows you down and takes brain cycles.
0942v8653 11y ago
> Slapping ads all over my login page is a great way render the fat from brand advertisers into short-term revenue gains at the price of ENRAGING me. Exactly. And the advertisers usually don't benefit either. When I was looking for a password manager, I saw Dashlane listed and it looked like a decent product … but I didn't click on it or research it because it had kept showing up on my Firefox homepage, and I associated "ads in my Firefox" with "Dashlane". Sure, I had more brand awareness, but it didn't do them any good.
jfuhrman 11y ago
Well that's a fairly misleading comparison. Where is the screenshot for Outlook.com which has no ads either? Not to mention the fact that Gmail is valuable to Google because it gets people to sign in in all the browsers they use, allowing them to track them via cookies on all Google properties including search. The "World's Most Valuable Advertising Business" does things like track which physical stores Android phone users and Google maps users on iOS visit. Plenty of Android OEMs install adware and bloatware, sometimes which cannot even be uninstalled, so I guess people are already conditioned to this.
awalGarg 11y ago
Just FTR, GMail puts quite a few ads in the inbox though. And until a few years ago, GMail also had fancy images and (internal only) ads on their login page as well. I didn't particularly care about those, though, because I usually never see the login page. But I do agree that GMail's advertisement is a lot more lightweight than other email services I have used (rediffmail? inline ads anyone?) Although presently I just use GMail's https://inbox.google.com https://inbox.google.com which hasn't shown me an advertisement yet.
Grue3 11y ago
And yet when I login into Gmail, I see several ads on top of my inbox that are styled exactly like mails, except they have a teeny-tiny yellow "Ad" sign next to them. I'd rather have huge ads than deceptive ads that pretend to be content.

by aresant 11y ago

vlunkr 11y ago

Personally I wouldn't be willing to pay for an ad-free version of an OS that you are already paying for.

the_hangman 11y ago
What? Who paid for Windows 10? I thought Windows 10 is supposed to be free?
- bad_user 11y ago
  I hope this is snark.
- ebbv 11y ago
  It's only free to upgrade to it. If you buy/build a new PC you have to pay $100 (or more) for the privilege of being shown ads on your login page.
- wongarsu 11y ago
  There's no way to get Windows 10 for free. Either you pay for an old version of Windows and upgrade or you buy Windows 10.

fnbr 11y ago

This is the exact reason why Google is so valuable- when I use Google, I'm actively searching for something, so I'm happy to see relevant ads in my search results. If I search "bike shop London," I want to find a bike shop in London, so if I see an ad for a bike shop in London, I'm ecstatic, and I'll probably go there. When I go to check my inbox, on the other hand, that's because I want to see what email I've received. I don't want to see ads there. This is the inherent problem with Facebook/Twitter- I go to Facebook/Twitter to find what my friends are up to, not to search for something. I have no interest in seeing ads in my Facebook/Twitter feed.

pmalynin 11y ago
I proactively do not click on adwords or suggested links or anything. In fact if I see an ad for bikes shops in London I will scroll down and click on the next link.
- jgreen10 11y ago
  Why?
- corndoge 11y ago
  Agreed. Clicking advertisements encourages advertising. Google's actual results are far more relevant than any paid placed advertisement anyway.
  - wongarsu 11y ago
    Clicking advertisements also helps to pay for the service you are using for free. In the case of google search the ads don't significantly diminish the product, so I'm happy to give google a bit of ad revenue.
    - wang_li 11y ago
      >Clicking advertisements also helps to pay for the service you are using for free. Yeah, well, I'm part of the 47% in this situation.

canistr 11y ago

Eh. I don't use Gmail because their login page is ad-free. I use it because my workflow is better. I was expecting your screenshot to show the minimized amount of ads within the inbox. But you could argue that Outlook is reasonably minimal, Gmail is only text, and Yahoo/AOL are panelled ads.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
alanh 11y ago
You don’t see how advertising is a drag on workflow? It shows you down and takes brain cycles.

0942v8653 11y ago

> Slapping ads all over my login page is a great way render the fat from brand advertisers into short-term revenue gains at the price of ENRAGING me. Exactly. And the advertisers usually don't benefit either. When I was looking for a password manager, I saw Dashlane listed and it looked like a decent product … but I didn't click on it or research it because it had kept showing up on my Firefox homepage, and I associated "ads in my Firefox" with "Dashlane". Sure, I had more brand awareness, but it didn't do them any good.

jfuhrman 11y ago

Well that's a fairly misleading comparison. Where is the screenshot for Outlook.com which has no ads either? Not to mention the fact that Gmail is valuable to Google because it gets people to sign in in all the browsers they use, allowing them to track them via cookies on all Google properties including search. The "World's Most Valuable Advertising Business" does things like track which physical stores Android phone users and Google maps users on iOS visit. Plenty of Android OEMs install adware and bloatware, sometimes which cannot even be uninstalled, so I guess people are already conditioned to this.

awalGarg 11y ago

Just FTR, GMail puts quite a few ads in the inbox though. And until a few years ago, GMail also had fancy images and (internal only) ads on their login page as well. I didn't particularly care about those, though, because I usually never see the login page. But I do agree that GMail's advertisement is a lot more lightweight than other email services I have used (rediffmail? inline ads anyone?) Although presently I just use GMail's https://inbox.google.com https://inbox.google.com which hasn't shown me an advertisement yet.

Grue3 11y ago

And yet when I login into Gmail, I see several ads on top of my inbox that are styled exactly like mails, except they have a teeny-tiny yellow "Ad" sign next to them. I'd rather have huge ads than deceptive ads that pretend to be content.