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Most of the ads are served to non-logged-in visitors who come to specific question pages through a web search. SO actually shows you fewer ads the more reputat
by nicky0 10y ago
Most of the ads are served to non-logged-in visitors who come to specific question pages through a web search.
SO actually shows you fewer ads the more reputation points you have.
- criddell 10y agoI think I would expect logged-in users to be more likely to have whitelisted the site than random Google visitors.
- nicky0 10y agoBut there are a lot more of the random Google visitors than active participants. SO is effectively a machine for getting smart people to create specific, targeted searchable content to run ads against.
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoWhat's the flow there for a user? They're researching an answer ... do they ignore the issue and run off and buy something? I sometime have poor focus but when you're problem solving it seems the least likely time to distract yourself with shopping. I did once follow a Google ad about 10 years ago, but in my defence I was just surfing cool tech and the image looked interesting. Of course I didn't buy anything, who lets advertisers tell them what to buy? I digress.
- morgante 10y ago> They're researching an answer ... do they ignore the issue and run off and buy something? Yes, that's an entirely credible idea. To use the first ad I found as an example, maybe I'm debugging an annoying issue with migrating my MongoDB cluster and I notice an ad for a managed MongoDB service and realize I'd rather pay them to deal with this. > Of course I didn't buy anything, who lets advertisers tell them what to buy? I do! There are millions of useful services out there and ads are an effective discovery tool.
- nicky0 10y agoOf course, we know you are special. But consider that other people may not be as strong willed and resilient to the advertisers' ways.