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> whoever gets my mom queries gets her ad profile This got me thinking —- are folks who can’t/won’t/rarely operate computers but are heavy users of voice contr

by jakear 6y ago

> whoever gets my mom queries gets her ad profile This got me thinking —- are folks who can’t/won’t/rarely operate computers but are heavy users of voice control living in a post-ad world? Where would personalizes ads even be displayed? All the streaming services don’t have ads (at the right price point), and sure the buying products through voice devices could push particular brands, but amazon already does that with “amazon’s choice” products and I know many people who will only buy those, so nothing is really changing there. Similar for recommended content on streaming services.

rswail 6y ago
Alexa, what butter should I order for this recipe? Alexa, buy me the shoes that Kim Kardashian has on her latest instagram pic, size 7. Amazon will control that gateway and can sell those answers to the highest paying advertiser. That's even better than paying for the #1 position on google search.
- jakear 6y ago
  How in the heck are butter suggestions going to be a personalized ad? That’s the same as “amazons choice”, or super market branded butter. Same for the shoes, that’s even more not-an-ad, as you’ve specifically requested a make/model. Personalized ads work by getting you to buy something you’ve been considering or getting you to consider something you haven’t heard about, in both of these cases they aren’t doing that.
  - nolok 6y ago
    It's not advertising per se, it's having the first place on that query on the list of amazon products. If you search on amazon you have sponsorised products at the top, products that aren't at the organic top with amazon's ranking system but pay to be above it.
    - jakear 6y ago
      Right, that’s “Amazon’s choice”/similar. Which isn’t dependent on tracking/personalization, it’s the same as super markets getting paid to put particular products in better locations. The ads I’m talking about are when I’m on a random website and I see sidebar ads for products totally unrelated to that page, but related to my interests. Voice-only folks are post-ad in that sense. And the original comment was specifically about an “ad profile”, which only matters for personalized ads. Without personalized ads, the ad profile is meaningless, so getting one via voice devices is not all that valuable. (Again, for voice-only folks)
      - nolok 6y ago
        That's not amazon's choice (which is still there too), that's sponsored content, and marked as such with a little "sponsored" under it. I just searched "shoes" on amazon and made a screen capture but you can't post on imgur without an ad blocker apparently.
        jakear 6y ago
        I was classifying all search result ordering manipulation as "amazons choice/similar", as they're all equivalent to a supermarket placing some products in desirable locations, and they all can not really make use of an "ad profile", as once the person is actively looking to buy a particular product, most of the work of traditional advertising has already happened. This means the "ad profile" of folks who do not use screens and only interact with voice is relatively worthless: the best you can do is push them towards buying your brand when they're already looking for your product-class, and at that point the "ad profile" adds relatively little to the experience, probably just an idea of how much money you're willing to spend. Given Amazon doesn't currently adjust search results based on a prediction of how much you'll spend [1], this information is probably not that valuable. Compare this to the value-add of traditional ad profiles: mine would say that I'm interested in, lets say, high end audio products, outdoor equipment, and dog products, which means anywhere I go online or on mobile apps I constantly get a barrage of ads for various products in these categories. If I see one I'm interested in, I'm likely to buy it right then and there. There's no voice-only equivalent of that, unless people start asking "tell me something I should buy" (Asking "tell me an item in {category} I should buy" is skipping over the ad profile) All in all, this means folks without screens are post-ad: they will only be shown products they're already looking for (in adjusted order, sure), rather then being shown products they had no idea about but might be interested in. This is bad news for advertising firms and new product developers, though they probably weren't getting much money from these folks in the first place. [1]: I only buy high-end audio products, I've bought many high-end audio products, and if I search "bookshelf speaker", I'll get cheap trash for the top results, telling me that Amazon is not interested in targeted whale-hunting, for whatever reason.
- RandoHolmes 6y ago
  Those have specific answers, why would advertisers be involved at all? That would be asking Amazon to specifically bring in middle-men they don't need to go through. "Alexa, what's the most healthy butter" would be a better example of something advertisers might pay for.
  - nolok 6y ago
    It's not advertising per se, it's having the first place on that query on the list of amazon products. If you search on amazon you have sponsorised products at the top, products that aren't at the organic top with amazon's ranking system but pay to be above it.
    - RandoHolmes 6y ago
      But it's not the same as advertisement today. If I search for shoes on Amazon and I see an advertisement for a different brand amongst the search results, that's fine. I'll ignore it. If I ask someone what shoes Kardashian was wearing and they give me a single answer that's incorrect, that's an entirely different thing.

by jakear 6y ago

rswail 6y ago

Alexa, what butter should I order for this recipe? Alexa, buy me the shoes that Kim Kardashian has on her latest instagram pic, size 7. Amazon will control that gateway and can sell those answers to the highest paying advertiser. That's even better than paying for the #1 position on google search.

jakear 6y ago
How in the heck are butter suggestions going to be a personalized ad? That’s the same as “amazons choice”, or super market branded butter. Same for the shoes, that’s even more not-an-ad, as you’ve specifically requested a make/model. Personalized ads work by getting you to buy something you’ve been considering or getting you to consider something you haven’t heard about, in both of these cases they aren’t doing that.
- nolok 6y ago
  It's not advertising per se, it's having the first place on that query on the list of amazon products. If you search on amazon you have sponsorised products at the top, products that aren't at the organic top with amazon's ranking system but pay to be above it.
  - jakear 6y ago
    Right, that’s “Amazon’s choice”/similar. Which isn’t dependent on tracking/personalization, it’s the same as super markets getting paid to put particular products in better locations. The ads I’m talking about are when I’m on a random website and I see sidebar ads for products totally unrelated to that page, but related to my interests. Voice-only folks are post-ad in that sense. And the original comment was specifically about an “ad profile”, which only matters for personalized ads. Without personalized ads, the ad profile is meaningless, so getting one via voice devices is not all that valuable. (Again, for voice-only folks)
    - nolok 6y ago
      That's not amazon's choice (which is still there too), that's sponsored content, and marked as such with a little "sponsored" under it. I just searched "shoes" on amazon and made a screen capture but you can't post on imgur without an ad blocker apparently.
      - jakear 6y ago
        I was classifying all search result ordering manipulation as "amazons choice/similar", as they're all equivalent to a supermarket placing some products in desirable locations, and they all can not really make use of an "ad profile", as once the person is actively looking to buy a particular product, most of the work of traditional advertising has already happened. This means the "ad profile" of folks who do not use screens and only interact with voice is relatively worthless: the best you can do is push them towards buying your brand when they're already looking for your product-class, and at that point the "ad profile" adds relatively little to the experience, probably just an idea of how much money you're willing to spend. Given Amazon doesn't currently adjust search results based on a prediction of how much you'll spend [1], this information is probably not that valuable. Compare this to the value-add of traditional ad profiles: mine would say that I'm interested in, lets say, high end audio products, outdoor equipment, and dog products, which means anywhere I go online or on mobile apps I constantly get a barrage of ads for various products in these categories. If I see one I'm interested in, I'm likely to buy it right then and there. There's no voice-only equivalent of that, unless people start asking "tell me something I should buy" (Asking "tell me an item in {category} I should buy" is skipping over the ad profile) All in all, this means folks without screens are post-ad: they will only be shown products they're already looking for (in adjusted order, sure), rather then being shown products they had no idea about but might be interested in. This is bad news for advertising firms and new product developers, though they probably weren't getting much money from these folks in the first place. [1]: I only buy high-end audio products, I've bought many high-end audio products, and if I search "bookshelf speaker", I'll get cheap trash for the top results, telling me that Amazon is not interested in targeted whale-hunting, for whatever reason.
RandoHolmes 6y ago
Those have specific answers, why would advertisers be involved at all? That would be asking Amazon to specifically bring in middle-men they don't need to go through. "Alexa, what's the most healthy butter" would be a better example of something advertisers might pay for.
- nolok 6y ago
  It's not advertising per se, it's having the first place on that query on the list of amazon products. If you search on amazon you have sponsorised products at the top, products that aren't at the organic top with amazon's ranking system but pay to be above it.
  - RandoHolmes 6y ago
    But it's not the same as advertisement today. If I search for shoes on Amazon and I see an advertisement for a different brand amongst the search results, that's fine. I'll ignore it. If I ask someone what shoes Kardashian was wearing and they give me a single answer that's incorrect, that's an entirely different thing.