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This is such a reductive view of most tech companies that have ads. Sometimes "giving customers [most of] what they want" is profitable - so they come back lat

This is such a reductive view of most tech companies that have ads. Sometimes "giving customers [most of] what they want" is profitable - so they come back later and have a multi-year relationship and use a variety of profit-generating products. Even if that means forgoing short-term profit from extra ads.

scarface74 4y ago
Google’s entire business model is giving users stuff for free to serve ads - as is FB. We aren’t talking about Apple giving three months free to entice customers to subscribe to AppleTV+ or Apple Music.
- vineyardmike 4y ago
  Have you ever been to one of those websites that had so many ads you couldn’t see the content (when it loaded 30 seconds later)? Banners and pop up’s and auto playing video all stacked on top of each other… Google and Facebook don’t look like that. Those sort of sites will never become a lasting concern like google or Facebook because users hate it. Google could make more money if 50% of search results were ads but then people would stop using search and they’d lose all their business. Instead they put less ads and hope you use maps, which also has a few ads, then YouTube which has a few ads then… then… then… It’s a lot more sustainable to “increase inventory” by increasing surface area for customers than using a bigger % of existing area. Same reason cable gets more channels instead of bigger % of existing airtime going to ads. Just like television- you can have a good show, even though ads are in between. that doesn’t make the writing any worse, the writers will still do their best. If you have a good experience with search, you’ll use it for years, and you may use other products since you had a good experience.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    The first 7 out of 10 items in my FB feed just now were promoted posts. I just searched for “bicycles” on my iPad. I don’t see any organic results without scrolling when I disable ad blocking. The writing is definitely worse with ads. Writers write in a specific format to allow ad breaks. Also, if you compare the quality and number of Emmy’s that ad supported TV gets to streaming/premium channels it’s much lower. I don’t watch TV with commercials. I very much live by the “I pay them money and they give me stuff” motto. I pay for content whenever possible to avoid ads including streaming services and a few podcasts.

scarface74 4y ago

Google’s entire business model is giving users stuff for free to serve ads - as is FB. We aren’t talking about Apple giving three months free to entice customers to subscribe to AppleTV+ or Apple Music.

vineyardmike 4y ago
Have you ever been to one of those websites that had so many ads you couldn’t see the content (when it loaded 30 seconds later)? Banners and pop up’s and auto playing video all stacked on top of each other… Google and Facebook don’t look like that. Those sort of sites will never become a lasting concern like google or Facebook because users hate it. Google could make more money if 50% of search results were ads but then people would stop using search and they’d lose all their business. Instead they put less ads and hope you use maps, which also has a few ads, then YouTube which has a few ads then… then… then… It’s a lot more sustainable to “increase inventory” by increasing surface area for customers than using a bigger % of existing area. Same reason cable gets more channels instead of bigger % of existing airtime going to ads. Just like television- you can have a good show, even though ads are in between. that doesn’t make the writing any worse, the writers will still do their best. If you have a good experience with search, you’ll use it for years, and you may use other products since you had a good experience.
- scarface74 4y ago
  The first 7 out of 10 items in my FB feed just now were promoted posts. I just searched for “bicycles” on my iPad. I don’t see any organic results without scrolling when I disable ad blocking. The writing is definitely worse with ads. Writers write in a specific format to allow ad breaks. Also, if you compare the quality and number of Emmy’s that ad supported TV gets to streaming/premium channels it’s much lower. I don’t watch TV with commercials. I very much live by the “I pay them money and they give me stuff” motto. I pay for content whenever possible to avoid ads including streaming services and a few podcasts.