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Couldn't this be done based on content, without looking at personal data? "Here is an article on investment. How about I show an ad of an investment bank." If

Couldn't this be done based on content, without looking at personal data? "Here is an article on investment. How about I show an ad of an investment bank." If only one company does it, they lose. But if everyone is forced to do it, noone will lose.

Blikkentrekker 6y ago
And it's more commercially effective to be more specific than that and take the reader's profile into account. It's also not a zero sum at all. An advertisement that is not within the user's interest is wasted, rather than going to the competitor.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  > An advertisement that is not within the user's interest is wasted, rather than going to the competitor. Not completely, if there is anything to the concept of "brand awareness" (and I believe there is, and a good chunk of advertisers do too). An ad that is not within user's interest still makes an imprint of the brand, product and vendor in their head. Later on, where user's interest change, that brand/product/vendor is a bit more likely to be recalled by them. A mistargeted ad is better than no ad at all.
cm2012 6y ago
In theory, yes, in reality, no. The strongest, biggest signal of what ads people will click is what kind of ads they clicked in the past. Content based ads have really bad performance comparably.
- dmitriid 6y ago
  > biggest signal of what ads people will click is what kind of ads they clicked in the past. Content based ads have really bad performance comparably. Has anyone actually compared this over long stretches of time and compared apples to apples, not apples to oranges? Additionally, most people don't want personalized ads based on tracking: https://www.emarketer.com/content/do-people-actually-want-personalized-ads https://www.emarketer.com/content/do-people-actually-want-pe...
  - Blikkentrekker 6y ago
    No one denies that they don't want it. I'm sure customers also don't want planned obsolescence. — it is very good for business, however.
    - dmitriid 6y ago
      There's very little planned obsolescence anywhere. It's more about racing to the bottom and building the chepest possible product that will hold for a while.
      - TeMPOraL 6y ago
        Planned obsolescence is a tricky term and has many faces (see e.g. a classification at [0]). A good and widespread example of overt, in-your-face planned obsolescence (surprisingly not mentioned in the article I linked) is "fast fashion", where nobody even tries to hide that clothing is designed to deteriorate quickly, to accommodate a season-long replacement cycle. I think race to the bottom deserves to be its own type of "planned obsolescence" (again, not mentioned in the Wikipedia classification). While in a highly competitive market, the design process may boil down to "do the same as competitor X, but slightly cheaper" instead of explicitly setting the durability target low, the end result is the same - products that have no business existing enter the market, live very briefly, and forever enter the waste stream. It's a systemic problem, and it's planned in the sense that if you enter such a market, you've already decided to create short-lived trash. -- [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence#Types https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence#Types

Blikkentrekker 6y ago

And it's more commercially effective to be more specific than that and take the reader's profile into account. It's also not a zero sum at all. An advertisement that is not within the user's interest is wasted, rather than going to the competitor.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
> An advertisement that is not within the user's interest is wasted, rather than going to the competitor. Not completely, if there is anything to the concept of "brand awareness" (and I believe there is, and a good chunk of advertisers do too). An ad that is not within user's interest still makes an imprint of the brand, product and vendor in their head. Later on, where user's interest change, that brand/product/vendor is a bit more likely to be recalled by them. A mistargeted ad is better than no ad at all.

cm2012 6y ago

In theory, yes, in reality, no. The strongest, biggest signal of what ads people will click is what kind of ads they clicked in the past. Content based ads have really bad performance comparably.

dmitriid 6y ago
> biggest signal of what ads people will click is what kind of ads they clicked in the past. Content based ads have really bad performance comparably. Has anyone actually compared this over long stretches of time and compared apples to apples, not apples to oranges? Additionally, most people don't want personalized ads based on tracking: https://www.emarketer.com/content/do-people-actually-want-personalized-ads https://www.emarketer.com/content/do-people-actually-want-pe...
- Blikkentrekker 6y ago
  No one denies that they don't want it. I'm sure customers also don't want planned obsolescence. — it is very good for business, however.
  - dmitriid 6y ago
    There's very little planned obsolescence anywhere. It's more about racing to the bottom and building the chepest possible product that will hold for a while.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      Planned obsolescence is a tricky term and has many faces (see e.g. a classification at [0]). A good and widespread example of overt, in-your-face planned obsolescence (surprisingly not mentioned in the article I linked) is "fast fashion", where nobody even tries to hide that clothing is designed to deteriorate quickly, to accommodate a season-long replacement cycle. I think race to the bottom deserves to be its own type of "planned obsolescence" (again, not mentioned in the Wikipedia classification). While in a highly competitive market, the design process may boil down to "do the same as competitor X, but slightly cheaper" instead of explicitly setting the durability target low, the end result is the same - products that have no business existing enter the market, live very briefly, and forever enter the waste stream. It's a systemic problem, and it's planned in the sense that if you enter such a market, you've already decided to create short-lived trash. -- [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence#Types https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence#Types