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Users benefit from a web where sites can make money by showing ads, because the alternatives (primarily paywalls) are worse. More: https://www.jefftk.com/p/why

by jefftk 5y ago

Users benefit from a web where sites can make money by showing ads, because the alternatives (primarily paywalls) are worse. More: https://www.jefftk.com/p/why-i-work-on-ads https://www.jefftk.com/p/why-i-work-on-ads (Disclosure: I work on ads at Google, speaking only for myself)

dessant 5y ago
Google's aberrated view of privacy and the role ads should play in our lives is partly why we have to constantly be on the lookout and expect to end up being screwed regardless, even if we pay $4000 for a device that runs Google TV.
dmitriid 5y ago
Yes, jeff. We all remember your articles in which you argue that invasive, track-all-of-your-life ads are somehow good. They are not. The world has survived for millenia without tracking ads.
- greiskul 5y ago
  And how long as the open web survived? Cause I see a lot of it dieing every day, being replaced with walls.
  - dmitriid 5y ago
    > And how long as the open web survived For a very, very long time. > Cause I see a lot of it dieing every day, being replaced with walls. That's because companies feel value in silos and extracting every cent they can out of users.
  - Nicksil 5y ago
    >And how long as the open web survived? Since its birth, clearly. No matter how you try and spin this, advertising is not a requite for a free and open Web. If ads were to disappear tomorrow, web sites which society has deemed important will survive, the others (if income was necessary in the first place) will indeed perish. And we will be just fine.
  - gxnxcxcx 5y ago
    The open web never felt the urge to become walled before the ad peddlers made it addicted to revenue.
  - perryizgr8 5y ago
    Just because the open web is being murdered by Google and FB, does not mean we have to go along with their progrom. We need to stand up for what's right, not for what's winning today.
rchaud 5y ago
This neatly sidesteps the reality that Google itself takes actions to makes Adsense revenue completely unpredictable. The "confirmed clicks" program created a ton of instability, with no real explanations from Big G: https://digiday.com/media/googles-confirmed-clicks-initiative-deepens-publishers-revenue-woes/ https://digiday.com/media/googles-confirmed-clicks-initiativ...
luckylion 5y ago
Without ads, content quality would go up, because very few people will pay for low quality content. And if quality goes up, people are happy to pay for it. With ads, content quality goes down. You don't need to convince people that your content is worth reading, you just need to convince Google. Slap a few expired domains on your text-spinner generated content and off you go. Not all content is created equal, and Made-For-Adsense content would not have been made otherwise and would not take away attention from quality content. I believe you're rationalizing your paycheck.
gxnxcxcx 5y ago
It has indeed enabled the professionalization of the endeavor, but the shift in incentives for content creation has irreversibly changed the shape of the mainstream internet, and not necessarily for the better as far as the user is concerned. The monetized web has in a lot of measures exceeded the frontiers of what the ragtag petite bourgeoisie of the early internet could ever be but, in the process, the great majority of us (both users and the very long tail of non-top content creators) have invariably become peasants. I'm not saying there was any other way to have what we have now, but what we have now kinda ain't sooo good when one isn't the middleman in a process architected for the middleman's benefit.
dogleash 5y ago
>because the alternatives (primarily paywalls) are worse Weird position to take when most high-quality content is already shifting to a paywall model (or didn't base their business model on advertising in the first place). And ad-supported content is in a race to the bottom meaning any content useful beyond light entertainment is drying up.
easrng 5y ago
Tracking and profiling users is completely unnecessary. Context-based, non-intrusive, ads are reasonable and better than paywalls and users won't hate them. I wish someone would make https://ethicalads.io https://ethicalads.io but not just targeted at developers.
- ericholscher 5y ago
  We're looking into the option of expanding our network or offering it as a SaaS for others who are wanting to build something similar for other audiences. The software works great for any content-based targeting, and we're excited to expand to other niches to push the vision forward as we can :)
  - easrng 5y ago
    That would be amazing! You guys are the only non-awful ad network with primarily text-based ads, which I like. I also love that we can style the ads with CSS which I'm pretty sure nobody else allows.
rurp 5y ago
I'm sure you are aware that contextual ads are a thing, and would still be quite profitable. I personally would be fine with wealthiest companies in the world making moderately less money in exchange for everyone having vastly more privacy.

by jefftk 5y ago

dessant 5y ago

Google's aberrated view of privacy and the role ads should play in our lives is partly why we have to constantly be on the lookout and expect to end up being screwed regardless, even if we pay $4000 for a device that runs Google TV.

dmitriid 5y ago

Yes, jeff. We all remember your articles in which you argue that invasive, track-all-of-your-life ads are somehow good. They are not. The world has survived for millenia without tracking ads.

greiskul 5y ago
And how long as the open web survived? Cause I see a lot of it dieing every day, being replaced with walls.
- dmitriid 5y ago
  > And how long as the open web survived For a very, very long time. > Cause I see a lot of it dieing every day, being replaced with walls. That's because companies feel value in silos and extracting every cent they can out of users.
- Nicksil 5y ago
  >And how long as the open web survived? Since its birth, clearly. No matter how you try and spin this, advertising is not a requite for a free and open Web. If ads were to disappear tomorrow, web sites which society has deemed important will survive, the others (if income was necessary in the first place) will indeed perish. And we will be just fine.
- gxnxcxcx 5y ago
  The open web never felt the urge to become walled before the ad peddlers made it addicted to revenue.
- perryizgr8 5y ago
  Just because the open web is being murdered by Google and FB, does not mean we have to go along with their progrom. We need to stand up for what's right, not for what's winning today.

rchaud 5y ago

This neatly sidesteps the reality that Google itself takes actions to makes Adsense revenue completely unpredictable. The "confirmed clicks" program created a ton of instability, with no real explanations from Big G: https://digiday.com/media/googles-confirmed-clicks-initiative-deepens-publishers-revenue-woes/ https://digiday.com/media/googles-confirmed-clicks-initiativ...

luckylion 5y ago

Without ads, content quality would go up, because very few people will pay for low quality content. And if quality goes up, people are happy to pay for it. With ads, content quality goes down. You don't need to convince people that your content is worth reading, you just need to convince Google. Slap a few expired domains on your text-spinner generated content and off you go. Not all content is created equal, and Made-For-Adsense content would not have been made otherwise and would not take away attention from quality content. I believe you're rationalizing your paycheck.

gxnxcxcx 5y ago

It has indeed enabled the professionalization of the endeavor, but the shift in incentives for content creation has irreversibly changed the shape of the mainstream internet, and not necessarily for the better as far as the user is concerned. The monetized web has in a lot of measures exceeded the frontiers of what the ragtag petite bourgeoisie of the early internet could ever be but, in the process, the great majority of us (both users and the very long tail of non-top content creators) have invariably become peasants. I'm not saying there was any other way to have what we have now, but what we have now kinda ain't sooo good when one isn't the middleman in a process architected for the middleman's benefit.

dogleash 5y ago

>because the alternatives (primarily paywalls) are worse Weird position to take when most high-quality content is already shifting to a paywall model (or didn't base their business model on advertising in the first place). And ad-supported content is in a race to the bottom meaning any content useful beyond light entertainment is drying up.

easrng 5y ago

Tracking and profiling users is completely unnecessary. Context-based, non-intrusive, ads are reasonable and better than paywalls and users won't hate them. I wish someone would make https://ethicalads.io https://ethicalads.io but not just targeted at developers.

ericholscher 5y ago
We're looking into the option of expanding our network or offering it as a SaaS for others who are wanting to build something similar for other audiences. The software works great for any content-based targeting, and we're excited to expand to other niches to push the vision forward as we can :)
- easrng 5y ago
  That would be amazing! You guys are the only non-awful ad network with primarily text-based ads, which I like. I also love that we can style the ads with CSS which I'm pretty sure nobody else allows.

rurp 5y ago

I'm sure you are aware that contextual ads are a thing, and would still be quite profitable. I personally would be fine with wealthiest companies in the world making moderately less money in exchange for everyone having vastly more privacy.