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I don’t necessarily mind ads. Gotta pay for content somehow, micro-transactions haven’t worked, and I’m approaching some weird psychological threshold where I j

I don’t necessarily mind ads. Gotta pay for content somehow, micro-transactions haven’t worked, and I’m approaching some weird psychological threshold where I just don’t want to see another subscription on my credit card. But ughhhhhh YouTube advertisements are so bad for me. I constantly get weird ”sexy witch girl” mobile game promos, I assume because I watch competitive Pokémon videos. (Spoiler, algorithm, gay male, don’t care about scantily glad witch girls.) Just grating dumb ads for stuff I definitely won’t buy. And it doesn’t have to be that way, seemingly. Instagram has me targeted perfectly. I actually find interesting stuff to buy off Instagram ads. That algorithm has me down pat. I don’t find those ads disgusting it all. (Or I get a kick out of the insane Wish ads.)

dominotw 6y ago
how often do you use youtube? I use youtube every single day so subscription( vs micro tx) make sense to me.
londons_explore 6y ago
Google, despite being the biggest player in the ad industry and a leader in machine learning, actually seems remarkably poor at selecting good ads to show. I think part of that is their data compartmentalizing for privacy reasons (they won't use your Gmail emails to your mum complaining that your drain is blocked to recommend 'magic drain unblocking washing liquid'). It's probably a good thing, but the other platforms don't have any qualms using such data if they have it... I also think they listen to the advertiser too much... For example, they give advertiser's a lot of control over who sees the ads, which creatives are used, what times of day to show them, etc. It turns out a machine learning algorithm can do much better than a human at selecting when to show my ad...
- ezoe 6y ago
  The question is, does showing the precise target matched ads profit the Google more? If not, Google has no incentive to improve in that regard. By showing you ads, Google has already been profiting. All Google need to do is showing you the ads from the highest bidder while it's also not annoying enough for you to leave the web site. The highest bidder's ads tend to be rather nasty. But if you don't stop using the web site because of the ads, Google win.
  - londons_explore 6y ago
    The highest bidder will only bid high if those ads work for their business. Therefore, Google has a direct incentive to make their ads work better for advertisers.
- paulie_a 6y ago
  Google, Facebook and pretty much all internet advertisers are overrated. All that tech to marginally beat a newspaper ad of the era. Big whoop. There really isn't anything impressive about them.
paulie_a 6y ago
Patreon shows that semi micro transactions do work. But at the end of the day. I'll just pay the 12 dollars to YouTube for the ad free experience and avoid channels that get to heavy handed with sponsors. I have signed up and paid for a number of third party products and services because of quality, but limited sponsorship
ohazi 6y ago
> Gotta pay for content somehow I'll pay with money, but I'll never pay with my time. You don't get it back. Ad-blocker for me.

dominotw 6y ago

how often do you use youtube? I use youtube every single day so subscription( vs micro tx) make sense to me.

londons_explore 6y ago

Google, despite being the biggest player in the ad industry and a leader in machine learning, actually seems remarkably poor at selecting good ads to show. I think part of that is their data compartmentalizing for privacy reasons (they won't use your Gmail emails to your mum complaining that your drain is blocked to recommend 'magic drain unblocking washing liquid'). It's probably a good thing, but the other platforms don't have any qualms using such data if they have it... I also think they listen to the advertiser too much... For example, they give advertiser's a lot of control over who sees the ads, which creatives are used, what times of day to show them, etc. It turns out a machine learning algorithm can do much better than a human at selecting when to show my ad...

ezoe 6y ago
The question is, does showing the precise target matched ads profit the Google more? If not, Google has no incentive to improve in that regard. By showing you ads, Google has already been profiting. All Google need to do is showing you the ads from the highest bidder while it's also not annoying enough for you to leave the web site. The highest bidder's ads tend to be rather nasty. But if you don't stop using the web site because of the ads, Google win.
- londons_explore 6y ago
  The highest bidder will only bid high if those ads work for their business. Therefore, Google has a direct incentive to make their ads work better for advertisers.
paulie_a 6y ago
Google, Facebook and pretty much all internet advertisers are overrated. All that tech to marginally beat a newspaper ad of the era. Big whoop. There really isn't anything impressive about them.

paulie_a 6y ago

Patreon shows that semi micro transactions do work. But at the end of the day. I'll just pay the 12 dollars to YouTube for the ad free experience and avoid channels that get to heavy handed with sponsors. I have signed up and paid for a number of third party products and services because of quality, but limited sponsorship

ohazi 6y ago

> Gotta pay for content somehow I'll pay with money, but I'll never pay with my time. You don't get it back. Ad-blocker for me.