I never said that was their intent, just that it's an important function (often despite the intent of the advertiser). I did a few searches for embedded develo

I never said that was their intent, just that it's an important function (often despite the intent of the advertiser). I did a few searches for embedded development boards, and now I got lots of ads for alternative boards. I don't pretend that this information is in my face altruistically or entirely truthfully, but it does give me some useful information, probably paid out of the pockets of some people who take the advertisements at face value. It's not the most efficient mechanism I could imagine for disseminating truthful information, but if you're not naive, it's a useful channel.