4 ms·

Any thoughts on how web search should be funded, in an ideal world, if ads are inherently repugnant?

by neolefty 9y ago

jordigh 9y ago
I find this a really sinister bargain too. Citizen, allow yourself to be manipulated, or capitalism will crumble. Watch this ad designed to make you buy a car, or the website gets it! There are other ways. Ask for donations, like Wikipedia (which as I understand it, is rolling in the dough). Fund it with taxes. Set up a plain ol' paywall and revitalise the slow, inefficient banking system until sending money tiny amounts of money is as easy as clicking "I agree" in an Apple EULA. If we're so strapped for cash that websites will crumble unless we all submit ourselves to the Ludovico technique, surely we have enough of an incentive to work on micropayment technology instead.
jasonkostempski 9y ago
Web search shouldn't be centralized or closed source, it should be made of the same stuff Linux is. Whatever Linux does to keep existing, there should be a community driven web search project that mimics it.
- neolefty 9y ago
  How could openness coexist with adversarial SOE? Genuine question -- I think it's possible, but how? For example, "Optimizers" currently have to guess at what Google is doing, but if the system was open source, they would know exactly. For another example, modern cryptography actually benefits from openness. Is there a similar possibility for Search?
  - jasonkostempski 9y ago
    I have no clue really but I'd like to see what the results would be like if the presence of anything that makes a site money would count negatively towards it's ranking. Any eCommerce site unless the search is something like "where to buy...". Completely disqualify any site with ad network and tracking scripts. I'd also like to see "text/plain" given the highest ranking. There's not much incentive to game the system if you can't make money off it.

4 ms·

Any thoughts on how web search should be funded, in an ideal world, if ads are inherently repugnant?

by neolefty 9y ago

Any thoughts on how web search should be funded, in an ideal world, if ads are inherently repugnant?

jordigh 9y ago
I find this a really sinister bargain too. Citizen, allow yourself to be manipulated, or capitalism will crumble. Watch this ad designed to make you buy a car, or the website gets it! There are other ways. Ask for donations, like Wikipedia (which as I understand it, is rolling in the dough). Fund it with taxes. Set up a plain ol' paywall and revitalise the slow, inefficient banking system until sending money tiny amounts of money is as easy as clicking "I agree" in an Apple EULA. If we're so strapped for cash that websites will crumble unless we all submit ourselves to the Ludovico technique, surely we have enough of an incentive to work on micropayment technology instead.
jasonkostempski 9y ago
Web search shouldn't be centralized or closed source, it should be made of the same stuff Linux is. Whatever Linux does to keep existing, there should be a community driven web search project that mimics it.
- neolefty 9y ago
  How could openness coexist with adversarial SOE? Genuine question -- I think it's possible, but how? For example, "Optimizers" currently have to guess at what Google is doing, but if the system was open source, they would know exactly. For another example, modern cryptography actually benefits from openness. Is there a similar possibility for Search?
  - jasonkostempski 9y ago
    I have no clue really but I'd like to see what the results would be like if the presence of anything that makes a site money would count negatively towards it's ranking. Any eCommerce site unless the search is something like "where to buy...". Completely disqualify any site with ad network and tracking scripts. I'd also like to see "text/plain" given the highest ranking. There's not much incentive to game the system if you can't make money off it.