I guess they do not think of those as "ads" but more like suggestions, or tips to the user. (Not defending it, they would be clearly doing mental gymnastics if

I guess they do not think of those as "ads" but more like suggestions, or tips to the user. (Not defending it, they would be clearly doing mental gymnastics if that were the case -- they absolutely are ads.) If they said the word "ad", they'd be referring to content from 3rd parties.