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The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]

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Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]

#331

Post by ryathal »

machina_ex_deus wrote: post #324
ndriscoll wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the apps I use are in fact free, and do not have ads to pay for them. Someone wanted something to exist, so they made it, and then they gave it away for free to everyone because computers are magical and there's no marginal cost to do that. The ad based Internet dying would leave hobby and academic content, significantly cleaning up the signal:noise ratio on the web, which would be great. As a bonus, you woul…

I would love to see a search engine which only indexes ad free websites. Would probably beat Google in many things without any algorithm. Even as blockers don't solve the problem of only getting SEO ad pages, but a search engine which doesn't show any website with ads will automatically filter all the trash.

That search engine would return the same 10 sites for any search.

Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]

#332

Post by local_crmdgeon »

jwestbury wrote: post #299
Eisenstein wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were many obviously lucrative paths Reddit could have taken. They have incredible amounts of data on users who self-select their own interests. They were making money selling subscriptions even. They could have monetized all sorts of things in non-annoying ways, like secret santa (pay to verify users or have direct anonymous shipping?), subreddit sponsorships (want to own /r/steam, Valve pays for it), etc. Inst…

> Reddit is an example of what happens when you put people in charge of a business who are both greedy and stupid. No, it's what happens when your investors are VCs who need to 10x on their wins because most of their investments fail. As a result, stable, long-term profitability isn't the goal; big IPOs are, or at least explosive growth. There's no room for a company which is moderately successful when VCs are involv…

This would be true if Reddit was ever profitable, which it was not. Hosting images was an expensive decision, and they weren't making much money before then.

I think this is just the way of the world. Usenet -> Slashdot -> Digg -> Reddit -> Discord -> ???

Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]

#333

Post by andreygrehov »

watwut wrote: post #307
andreygrehov wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Due to an excessive censorship prior to the acquisition, Twitter was a far left cesspool. All these users are still active after the acquisition, however many right-wing accounts were reinstated. Consequently, from the political perspective, Twitter is now more balanced than ever. One can be sure of this by tuning their feed – follow a politically diverse groups of people. > Most people i know don't use it anymore. T…

This is a lie. Not even manipulation or twisting the truth, but clear unambiguous lie. If anything, after Musk takeover, it became clear how good decisions twitter made before. In addition, Must is not even trying to stand up to regimes and such. It became completely meek. Also, twitter is not "balanced". It is right-wing in the sense of "we use right-wing as euphemism for nazi and such".

Federal ruling concluded that there was censorship prior to the Musk take over. This is not a theory, this is a fact.

Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]

#334

Post by Eisenstein »

local_crmdgeon wrote: post #332
jwestbury wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Reddit is an example of what happens when you put people in charge of a business who are both greedy and stupid. No, it's what happens when your investors are VCs who need to 10x on their wins because most of their investments fail. As a result, stable, long-term profitability isn't the goal; big IPOs are, or at least explosive growth. There's no room for a company which is moderately successful when VCs are involv…

This would be true if Reddit was ever profitable, which it was not. Hosting images was an expensive decision, and they weren't making much money before then. I think this is just the way of the world. Usenet -> Slashdot -> Digg -> Reddit -> Discord -> ???

They weren't profitable because they kept spending money on growth.

Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]

#335

Post by intrasight »

specialist wrote: post #281
intrasight wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Pay us! Or we kill the planet!" Well it used to be "Pay us! And we kill the planet!" My opinion is that the "or" operator is an improvement over the old. It implies that there is a chance to save the planet. >My vote is for nationalizing all the fossil fuel companies This will have exactly the opposite effect as you are envisioning. Having every citizen benefit from fossil fuels will make them much harder to keep…

> ...will have exactly the opposite effect as you are envisioning. Sure. Or not. At some point, like with coal before it, oil's price will fall thru the floor. What then? The fate of the countries listed will vary. Foreseeing the inevitable, some of the Gulf States and Norway have been diversifying for a while. China is racing to create the post carbon future, hoping to outrun the bear. Russia is choosing oblivion. T…

> But I expect the worse. And I'm an optimist.

Same. That KSR article just made me more pessimistic about fossil fuels. Politicians in the West need to quickly show some leadership towards a carbon tax.

Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]

#336

Post by local_crmdgeon »

syntaxing wrote: post #41
makeitdouble wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What examples of ad based rising companies do you see ? My first thought was Google, and it's started to plateau in the recent years: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/GOOGL/alphabet/rev... . Meta also took a dive, and while it was from a sharp turn of the business focus, I'd argue it comes from an attempt to avoid staying on a stagnating market.

I don’t use it but TikTok

TikTok makes its money selling data to governments like the CCP. The ads aren't paying for all that bandwidth.

Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]

#337

Post by JohnFen »

hext wrote: post #284
spacemadness wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting we hear a lot about how engineers need to understand ethics, but nobody says a peep about the field of marketing which focuses on psychological manipulation and deception.

Advertising, as a field, has had a horrible reputation since way before anyone on this site was born.

Yep. It's almost like most people don't appreciate being manipulated.

Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]

#338

Post by JohnFen »

badpun wrote: post #327
badpun wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The real issue IMO is that users do not understand that ads pay for their apps. Because it does not make any sense. No one wants to be shown something he does not find interesting or important, even if they say that they will. So if you believe people should watch, read, or listen to your ads, you've been living in a bubble. It's either watch some ads, or work slightly harder to make slightly more money, to afford…

To the downvoters: YouTube has been, for a couple years now, conducting a natural experiment that my confirms my claim. People can either buy a subscribtion or suffer the ads. Most prefer the ads.

I don't think that's a good experiment, though. Regardless of people's overall preference on this, I would expect the existing YouTube audience to mostly stay with the ad-supported stuff, because that's what they're used to with YouTube and people who really, really hate ads weren't using YouTube to begin with. All of that makes YouTube users a biased sample.

A more valid experiment would require all users to be new to the platform.

Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]

#339

Post by JohnFen »

machina_ex_deus wrote: post #324
ndriscoll wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the apps I use are in fact free, and do not have ads to pay for them. Someone wanted something to exist, so they made it, and then they gave it away for free to everyone because computers are magical and there's no marginal cost to do that. The ad based Internet dying would leave hobby and academic content, significantly cleaning up the signal:noise ratio on the web, which would be great. As a bonus, you woul…

I would love to see a search engine which only indexes ad free websites. Would probably beat Google in many things without any algorithm. Even as blockers don't solve the problem of only getting SEO ad pages, but a search engine which doesn't show any website with ads will automatically filter all the trash.

> I would love to see a search engine which only indexes ad free websites.

YES. Not only would I find more pleasant sites, but they'd likely be of higher information quality.

Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]

#340

Post by JohnFen »

commandlinefan wrote: post #240
RandallFlagg wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would personally prefer to pay for a service with my money as opposed to my information and ads being shoved in my face. Unfortunately many services don't even give an option to pay with money, so I've been trying to find alternatives, for example I've been starting to migrate away from Gmail to Protonmail. I understand things cost money, so let me pay you for your services. I just despise ads with a passion.

> prefer to pay for a service There was a comic (an Oatmeal comic, IIRC) where the guy goes into Starbucks and orders a $5.00 coffee, and then while drinking it picks up his phone and it asks him to pay $1.00 to access a news article and he says, "$1.00! Who do they think I am, Mark Zuckerberg?" (or something like that). While I get the _sentiment_ behind it (especially from a webcomic guy who's producing entertainin…

> the guy goes into Starbucks and orders a $5.00 coffee, and then while drinking it picks up his phone and it asks him to pay $1.00 to access a news article and he says, "$1.00! Who do they think I am, Mark Zuckerberg?"

I'd be one of those people. $1 for a single news article is outrageously overpriced, where the coffee is only moderately overpriced.

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