Why doesn't Google offer some across-the-board AdSense subscription-- $10 a month to never see a single "Ads by Google"?
The Internet Made Me Sad Today
21–30 of 186 posts
Re: The Internet Made Me Sad Today
#22Using Readable (http://readable.tastefulwords.com/) it looks great: http://www.blueatlas.com/images/readable.png
Good job Readable
Full Disclosure: I have no affiliation with Readable.
Re: The Internet Made Me Sad Today
#23Why blame google? The problems here are: 1) the publisher has chosen to embed ad tags within editorial content; 2) the editorial content is so worthless that google can only show a house ad.
Re: The Internet Made Me Sad Today
#24I think that even worse are the fake download buttons served with free software that lead users to adware:
Re: The Internet Made Me Sad Today
#25Heh. That's funny. when i go to those sites, i don't even see the ads. That's why I block facebook connect, google plus, and a raft of other sites.
Re: The Internet Made Me Sad Today
#26Install AdBlock Plus. Solved. Not that big of a deal, huh?
I see that I somehow have made the entirely wrong point. I didn’t say that it’s sad that I have to wade through ads. As it happens, I have this “reader” thingie in Safari, which solves the ad problem and the readability problem in one click or keypress. The thing I was trying to say that makes me sad is that there is a generation of smart people toiling away with the power of what may be the world’s biggest computing…
It's the tragedy of the commons, writ large. "What's wrong with just showing one gaming ad to a precocious dinosaur-loving kid, she'll be able to concentrate on her studies later. Oh, maybe one more ad, maybe one more, maybe one more..."
Re: The Internet Made Me Sad Today
#27So who is the author blaming? He's not blaming the end user (the one that makes those ads worth the most to both google and content sites). - Is he blaming Google for maximizing ad revenue for the content site? - Is he blaming the content sites for wanting to maximize their own revenue on page views? (or, perhaps, for being too lazy to sell ads themselves?) - Is he blaming the people who spend the money to get their…
Based on my reading of the article and raganwald's comment below, my understanding is he's blaming talented employees or entrepreneurs who choose to use their skills to create low-value (in societal terms, not monetary) products and services. And it seems he's not so much blaming as bemoaning.
The post struck a chord with me because I am evaluating several employment offers. The one that gives me the opportunity to work with the coolest technologies and receive the highest compensation would leave me feeling the ickiest at some level (it involves mobile ad analytics).
Re: The Internet Made Me Sad Today
#28Why doesn't Google offer some across-the-board AdSense subscription-- $10 a month to never see a single "Ads by Google"?
"Nice browser yous gots there... would be a shame if something were to happen to it, eh? Like if some ads was to get put on the pages... 10 bucks a month, me and my boys 'take care of' that for yous". The Google Protection Racket
Re: The Internet Made Me Sad Today
#29Why doesn't Google offer some across-the-board AdSense subscription-- $10 a month to never see a single "Ads by Google"?
Because AdBlock is free?
Re: The Internet Made Me Sad Today
#30I applaud this fantastically succinct point: "Some foods taste good but kill you. Some drugs make you feel good but rot your brain. And some ads lead the curious away from knowledge."
I do think, however, that it's incredibly difficult to construct an entirely machine-learning- and auction-based ad network without these sorts of problems popping up. Especially with presumably low dinosaur-related ad inventory to choose from. (Perhaps dinosaurs -> kids -> games isn't a far leap in terms of correlation?)
Based on physorg's deceptive ad placement, text styling, and terrible anti-aging ad selection for the bottom, I would argue that our collective sadness is better directed at them than at Google.