Ages ago, when the world was young (say 1994 or 95), I thought ads on web pages were a fantastic idea. Unobtrusive, able to be taylored to the viewer, a one-cli

Ages ago, when the world was young (say 1994 or 95), I thought ads on web pages were a fantastic idea. Unobtrusive, able to be taylored to the viewer, a one-click gateway to all kinds of information, and a nice way to get free content paid for. But, alas, after I clicked on a few ads, I was sadly disillusioned. Haven't clicked on ads in years. But now, you post your questions. So I put on my experimenter hat and try again. For science. Let's click on some ads. Ad #1. A sidebar ad asking if I know who uses oil & natural gas. I click. I get a page listing lots of uses of oil & natural gas. Why do these people want me to know this? How does it benefit me? How does it benefit them? I have no idea. On to the next ad. Ad #2. Forex trading. Click. A page full of words like "spread" and "pips". No idea what it's talking about. Continuing. Ad #3. Schick Hydro. I can win prizes. Wow. Click. The Facebook page for Schick Hydro, whatever that is. If this is the same Schick we all know & love, then it's probably a new kind of razor, I guess. I'm supposed to "like" to continue. They want me to upvote them before I even know what's going on?? I'm seriously turned off. But, as a die-hard experimenter, I bravely forge ahead (for science!). Click "like". Get a box saying I need to sign up for Facebook. No thanks. Sick of ads, I end the experiment. Folks, I've been on the web since 1993. There must be an enormous amount of information about me in various databases out there: my habits, my preferences, what I like to read, what I like to buy. And this is the best the ad industry can do? Consider: someone worked on these ads. Someone paid for them. But in none of the three cases did the ad offer me anything I wanted. Nor, I think, did the advertisers get what they wanted. Complete waste of their time and money. I know how oil is used. A page that assumes I understand "pips"? That does no one any good. And making me jump through hoops before -- presumably -- telling me about a razor, is not pushing me toward buying it. In short: these ads all appear to come with a significant dose of stupidity -- or well intentioned incompetence at least. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: (1) Build an ad platform that isn't stupid. (I'm not saying I know how, or that it's easy, but my experiences above show some things not to do.) (2) Work very hard to keep the stupidity out. Advertisers seem to want to be stupid and waste users' time. Don't let them; not on your platform. (3) Brand the platform in a recognizable way. I think the web will always be full of worthless ads. Your platform needs to be easily recognizable and develop a reputation as something worth clicking on[1]. Otherwise, you'll just get lumped in with all the stupidity out there. -------- [1] That is, if clicking is what you want users to do. There are certainly other ways of advertising on the web. But I should warn you that, if you choose to put your efforts into unskippable ads before videos, then I will most likely end up detesting you.