The profit motive inevitably destroys these types of businesses. There's a reason threads here on HN in the category of "what did you buy/read/do recently?" ar

The profit motive inevitably destroys these types of businesses. There's a reason threads here on HN in the category of "what did you buy/read/do recently?" are so popular. People want reliable information that advertisement is definitely not giving us. Thinking about it, nothing beats recommendation from a known trusted individual. Be it for a restaurant, an appliance, a car, etc. This tells me how little advertising is about the discoverability of products/services. This creation of needs is 99.9% of the time unnecessary. It's only there because people want to sell regardless of how useless their product is. If people need something, they will search for it.