4 ms·

Are people really opposed to the commercialization of the internet, or just intrusive advertising? People are using the terms interchangeably here but I would

Are people really opposed to the commercialization of the internet, or just intrusive advertising? People are using the terms interchangeably here but I would draw a fairly sharp line between intrusive online advertising and other aspects of internet commercialization, and I think most people would as well. I love being able to buy physical goods and online. I think most people love this. I think you could ban ads from the internet tomorrow, and most online retailers would continue to flourish just fine. Though it would be harder for new retailers to break into the game. I also love various online services. I love being able to schedule a trip to the dentist or access my bank account online. Again I think very few people object to this. It's really only content delivery and search that are hopelessly entangled with toxic advertising that is necessitated by the fact that people expect those things to be free. I know those are a couple of enormous "onlys." However, to return to your point: The irony off posting this on a VC website that make money off the commercialisation of the internet. They get a lot of press and mindshare, especially in SV, but the majority of internet-adjacent companies and engineers are not involved in the search, content, or advertising industries.

di456 4y ago
> They get a lot of press and mindshare, especially in SV, but the majority of internet-adjacent companies and engineers are not involved in the search, content, or advertising industries. This is a pretty big divergence from GP's comment. Besides, many of them are customers of the same industry buying ads, or vendors selling data. The whole thing reeks of needless fingerpointing. While consumers keep feeding their data and money to these companies. They don't have to. Consumers are trading personal info and preferences for convenience and dopamine. Who's the worse bad guy here? It seems like everyone is getting what they want one way or the other. I'd argue that making the internet addictive is the real problem here. Not saying this to justify any of it, it's just the reality I see.
fomine3 4y ago
Online shopping sites relies on ads. You can see many ads for shopping
- account42 4y ago
  Worse than ads, they also often have referral programs which causes discussion of the sold products elsewhere to be drowned out by listicles that care more about getting you to buy something that they have a referral link for than meaningful comparison.

di456 4y ago

> They get a lot of press and mindshare, especially in SV, but the majority of internet-adjacent companies and engineers are not involved in the search, content, or advertising industries. This is a pretty big divergence from GP's comment. Besides, many of them are customers of the same industry buying ads, or vendors selling data. The whole thing reeks of needless fingerpointing. While consumers keep feeding their data and money to these companies. They don't have to. Consumers are trading personal info and preferences for convenience and dopamine. Who's the worse bad guy here? It seems like everyone is getting what they want one way or the other. I'd argue that making the internet addictive is the real problem here. Not saying this to justify any of it, it's just the reality I see.

fomine3 4y ago

Online shopping sites relies on ads. You can see many ads for shopping

account42 4y ago
Worse than ads, they also often have referral programs which causes discussion of the sold products elsewhere to be drowned out by listicles that care more about getting you to buy something that they have a referral link for than meaningful comparison.