5 ms·
Like many here, I have a sysadmin side gig for my aging dad: uBlock is essentially required as anti-virus software. While it's great that google figured out ho
by jpmattia 4y ago
Like many here, I have a sysadmin side gig for my aging dad: uBlock is essentially required as anti-virus software.
While it's great that google figured out how to monetize search by inserting ads, it was a lot more ethical back when their major demographic was geeks who could tell the difference between an ad link and a genuine result. Now? Not so much.
- capableweb 4y ago> it was a lot more ethical back when their major demographic was geeks who could tell the difference between an ad link and a genuine result I think the ads used to be more distinct as well, with a different background color even, if I remember correctly. I guess it's a fine line to walk between "It should be obvious what is advertisement" vs "Users should be confused enough to sometimes click the advertisement", and Google chose to go for the latter in order to raise click rates.
- GeekyBear 4y agoAds were not only a different color, they were also limited to the margins of the page and did not appear in the list of search results. As a matter of fact, when Google was the scrappy new underdog, they used to make fun of the legacy search engines for the practice of mixing ads into the list of search results.
- ManuelKiessling 4y agoYou either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain…
- deafpolygon 4y agoOr they were the second mystery final boss.
- marcosdumay 4y agoThe ads used to be on the right bar, and selected by their site's relevance to your search. They were incredibly useful.