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This is where ad-based businesses show their ugly side: The more control you have over what you see, the fewer ways they have to slip you inconspicuous ads. Th

This is where ad-based businesses show their ugly side: The more control you have over what you see, the fewer ways they have to slip you inconspicuous ads. This is why all content feeds like Facebook and Twitter get vaguer as time goes by, and it's why Google will never give up control over results unless it legally has to.

rchaud 5y ago
It's also why every social network moved to an algorithmic feed. Had it remained chronological, our primitive brains would have noticed content from yesterday come up after a certain point, signaling to us that we are caught up and don't need to scroll further. Can't imagine how catastrophic that would be to their ad business.
- ryantgtg 5y ago
  G*d forbid anyone ever stop scrolling. I was browsing airbnb the other day, looking at places in a small area (maybe 25 rentals) and was shocked/alarmed/saddened to discover that the app has infinite scrolling. Rather than the list ending once I’ve seen all 25 results, they just show them again in a different order.
  - BarryMilo 5y ago
    That's both garbage and outlandish design...
hutzlibu 5y ago
Yeah. The dependency to adds, are a big reason why so much tech suck so much, despite trillions invested. Because those investments are not made, to show you clearly what you want to see, but to show you just enough, to not loose you while injection as much information garbage as possible. If we do not fix that, it will all just get worse, not better.
deleted 5y ago
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Consultant32452 5y ago
If you control what articles and pages show up based on some searches you can impact elections. Forget ads, who would give up control every close election on the planet?
matheusmoreira 5y ago
Not to mention the fact they police content. They'll refuse to associate with anyone they deem objectionable enough for any reason. This will deny sites their revenue and will lead to self-censorship to regain their favor. Nothing kills perfectly good websites faster than some offended person complaining and ads getting pulled.

rchaud 5y ago

It's also why every social network moved to an algorithmic feed. Had it remained chronological, our primitive brains would have noticed content from yesterday come up after a certain point, signaling to us that we are caught up and don't need to scroll further. Can't imagine how catastrophic that would be to their ad business.

ryantgtg 5y ago
G*d forbid anyone ever stop scrolling. I was browsing airbnb the other day, looking at places in a small area (maybe 25 rentals) and was shocked/alarmed/saddened to discover that the app has infinite scrolling. Rather than the list ending once I’ve seen all 25 results, they just show them again in a different order.
- BarryMilo 5y ago
  That's both garbage and outlandish design...

hutzlibu 5y ago

Yeah. The dependency to adds, are a big reason why so much tech suck so much, despite trillions invested. Because those investments are not made, to show you clearly what you want to see, but to show you just enough, to not loose you while injection as much information garbage as possible. If we do not fix that, it will all just get worse, not better.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Consultant32452 5y ago

If you control what articles and pages show up based on some searches you can impact elections. Forget ads, who would give up control every close election on the planet?

matheusmoreira 5y ago

Not to mention the fact they police content. They'll refuse to associate with anyone they deem objectionable enough for any reason. This will deny sites their revenue and will lead to self-censorship to regain their favor. Nothing kills perfectly good websites faster than some offended person complaining and ads getting pulled.