4 ms·

Unfortunately, I think ads are going to get worse before they get better. The huge hotness in marketing right now is using AI and the trove of data to write per

Unfortunately, I think ads are going to get worse before they get better. The huge hotness in marketing right now is using AI and the trove of data to write personalized ad copy for every recipient. Right now it's expensive enough that not a ton of people are doing it, and the ones who are are only targeting a small niche of people, but I expect that the economics will improve quickly. Given Microsoft's full dive into gathering personalized information, integrating those collection pipelines deeply into the operating system, and integrating AI into the OS, it seems likely to me that personalized ads are coming to a Windows system near you. On a related note, gnome weather is minimalist, very lightweight, and entirely ad free.

segasaturn 2y ago
Windows has had personalized ads for a long time now, they just mask it as "Recommendations". They're in the start menu, the search bar, the task bar, and even your lock screen! I remember many years ago when dynamic lock screen for Windows 10 was turned into a giant ad for Disney's Minions. It's everywhere in the OS.
- lattalayta 2y ago
  Just a small correction noting that Disney is not involved with the Minion movies
  - segasaturn 2y ago
    Interesting, all these years I just assumed Despicable Me was a Pixar property. Never heard of Illumination before but I enjoyed their work on The Super Mario Bros Movie.
InDubioProRubio 2y ago
The incredible thing is how pain accepting the microsoft user base is. Any other product, people would have switched over or at least trained into alternatives a while ago, just out of spite and to avoid the pain. Why not more people have a linux-vm to alt-tab between, i shall never know. It really shows how far away linux as "desktop" addition, not even replacement really is.
- itishappy 2y ago
  Pain means different things to different people. To date, I've calculated turning off ads in Windows to be less painful than reinstalling a new OS. I've had to find and change settings 3 times in the past 10 or so years, and then 3 times in the past year, but my Windows does not have ads (I also don't use Microsoft aps). This is admittedly galling, but I have a feeling I'd be messing around with Linux settings at a similar or greater rate. This isn't really an excuse. I've been meaning to get a test install of Linux on my laptop for a while, but I've been putting it off due to the expectation that it will not be a pain-free process to get all my stuff running as I like again.
AlexandrB 2y ago
Will be really interesting to see how people react when the personalized copy reveals a little too much of what the ad platform knows and crosses over into creepy territory.
yoyohello13 2y ago
I'm convinced marketing is one of the most harmful professions to society. Yes, some amount of marketing is important, so people know who you are and what you do. But the number of times our marketing department asked for creepy spyware tracking in order to "better serve our customers" makes me sick to my stomach.
- 65 2y ago
  This is true, but I also think software technology corporations play a huge role in accelerating the destruction of society. I'm having a hard time being convinced this boring dystopia we're in right now is all that much better than when we didn't have huge software companies destroying society (mostly Facebook and Google). I'm a software engineer (of course) but the way corporate software is going is bleak. FOSS sometimes feels like the only light we have. Social media destroyed society, made everyone confused and neutered. Sorry, slightly off topic rant. But day by day I get increasingly frustrated with where the software industry is going.
- cheeseomlit 2y ago
  Bill Hicks had the right idea about marketers, for sure.
- jampekka 2y ago
  It goes well beyond creepy spyware tracking. The rampant marketing-driven consumerism corrupts the whole culture and society.
- ryandrake 2y ago
  Just to nit pick a little, because I don't want to paint the whole profession of Marketing with one terrible brush. These dystopian spyware-tracking-ads are just one of the "four P's" of Marketing: Promotion. And it's not even really Promotion in the traditional sense, it's something much more personally intrusive, not just at people's eyes but into their psychology. It's a two-way communication rather than a one-way "sales pitch." And the return communication (from us to the Marketer) is happening without our consent. I think we need a fifth P or something: Psychologic Warfare? I don't know, I don't write the Marketing textbooks.
secondcoming 2y ago
Personalised Advertising products are likely to be short-lived considering the swathe of Privacy legislation that's out there.

segasaturn 2y ago

Windows has had personalized ads for a long time now, they just mask it as "Recommendations". They're in the start menu, the search bar, the task bar, and even your lock screen! I remember many years ago when dynamic lock screen for Windows 10 was turned into a giant ad for Disney's Minions. It's everywhere in the OS.

lattalayta 2y ago
Just a small correction noting that Disney is not involved with the Minion movies
- segasaturn 2y ago
  Interesting, all these years I just assumed Despicable Me was a Pixar property. Never heard of Illumination before but I enjoyed their work on The Super Mario Bros Movie.

InDubioProRubio 2y ago

The incredible thing is how pain accepting the microsoft user base is. Any other product, people would have switched over or at least trained into alternatives a while ago, just out of spite and to avoid the pain. Why not more people have a linux-vm to alt-tab between, i shall never know. It really shows how far away linux as "desktop" addition, not even replacement really is.

itishappy 2y ago
Pain means different things to different people. To date, I've calculated turning off ads in Windows to be less painful than reinstalling a new OS. I've had to find and change settings 3 times in the past 10 or so years, and then 3 times in the past year, but my Windows does not have ads (I also don't use Microsoft aps). This is admittedly galling, but I have a feeling I'd be messing around with Linux settings at a similar or greater rate. This isn't really an excuse. I've been meaning to get a test install of Linux on my laptop for a while, but I've been putting it off due to the expectation that it will not be a pain-free process to get all my stuff running as I like again.

AlexandrB 2y ago

Will be really interesting to see how people react when the personalized copy reveals a little too much of what the ad platform knows and crosses over into creepy territory.

yoyohello13 2y ago

I'm convinced marketing is one of the most harmful professions to society. Yes, some amount of marketing is important, so people know who you are and what you do. But the number of times our marketing department asked for creepy spyware tracking in order to "better serve our customers" makes me sick to my stomach.

65 2y ago
This is true, but I also think software technology corporations play a huge role in accelerating the destruction of society. I'm having a hard time being convinced this boring dystopia we're in right now is all that much better than when we didn't have huge software companies destroying society (mostly Facebook and Google). I'm a software engineer (of course) but the way corporate software is going is bleak. FOSS sometimes feels like the only light we have. Social media destroyed society, made everyone confused and neutered. Sorry, slightly off topic rant. But day by day I get increasingly frustrated with where the software industry is going.
cheeseomlit 2y ago
Bill Hicks had the right idea about marketers, for sure.
jampekka 2y ago
It goes well beyond creepy spyware tracking. The rampant marketing-driven consumerism corrupts the whole culture and society.
ryandrake 2y ago
Just to nit pick a little, because I don't want to paint the whole profession of Marketing with one terrible brush. These dystopian spyware-tracking-ads are just one of the "four P's" of Marketing: Promotion. And it's not even really Promotion in the traditional sense, it's something much more personally intrusive, not just at people's eyes but into their psychology. It's a two-way communication rather than a one-way "sales pitch." And the return communication (from us to the Marketer) is happening without our consent. I think we need a fifth P or something: Psychologic Warfare? I don't know, I don't write the Marketing textbooks.

secondcoming 2y ago

Personalised Advertising products are likely to be short-lived considering the swathe of Privacy legislation that's out there.