Another way to look at it might be that #1 did happen, it's just called the internet. Twitter, for example, has an entire team of people working on "search and

Another way to look at it might be that #1 did happen, it's just called the internet. Twitter, for example, has an entire team of people working on "search and relevance." This is essentially #1, but it's not advertising, it's just how Twitter works. The core concept of sites like Twitter, Facebook, and even HN is that you should be seeing the content that you find interesting. What we call advertising in that context necessarily has to subvert #1. If it was the content that is already the most "relevant" to a user, there would be no reason for an advertiser to pay in order to make it visible to that user, since it would be what is naturally presented.