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An ad that's relevant to your interests is fine, but that's the best case scenario. How many people's lives were improved by clicking on "one weird trick" ads?
by natrius 10y ago
An ad that's relevant to your interests is fine, but that's the best case scenario. How many people's lives were improved by clicking on "one weird trick" ads? Those ads sucked money out of people's pockets for no reason. Running experiments to find out the most effective ways to get people to hand over their money is a valid business practice, but that strategy in no way depends on the product adding value to your life. Anything that can be invented to get you as an individual to click on a buy button will be invented, whether it's good for you or not.
Profit-seeking has led to lots of progress in this world, but its record is decidedly mixed. Keep your eyes open.
- eridius 10y ago"One weird trick" ads aren't targeted advertising, they're advertising based on psychological tricks. It's a whole different ballgame. Targeted advertising is based around "if we show ads relevant to the user's interests, the user is more likely to click them and buy stuff", which is a win all around. Ads based on psychological tricks is "can we trick the user into doing something that's harmful to them but beneficial to us?", which is of course not good for users. Conflating the two advertising techniques doesn't serve any purpose at all.