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Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

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Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#311

Post by torben-friis »

mdasen wrote: post #21

This is what basically everyone else has done over the past decade. Google used to put a different background behind ads in its search ( https://www.fsedigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Google... ). It made it really easy to tell what was an ad and skip over it quickly. Now it's a lot harder to quickly notice what's an ad and what isn't. Sites used to have banner ads. Now they show posts that look exactly like t…

>It's shocking that Apple hasn't done this trick yet when everyone else started doing it years ago.

They sell a walled garden. If shit gets inside the walls, we might as well come out.

I’m not willing to pay the apple tax any longer. Let the ad sellers pay if they’re the main costumers.

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#313

Post by 6510 »

GrowingSideways wrote: post #37
yomismoaqui wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we use "ensheetification" to describe this phenomeon? (sure I'm not the first to use this word)

What does it imply that the other term does not? Enshitification is the inevitable result of the tendency of profit to revert to zero. This is basic schumpeter (not to mention marx).

One is the result the other is the process.

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#314

Post by KolibriFly »

mdasen wrote: post #21

This is what basically everyone else has done over the past decade. Google used to put a different background behind ads in its search ( https://www.fsedigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Google... ). It made it really easy to tell what was an ad and skip over it quickly. Now it's a lot harder to quickly notice what's an ad and what isn't. Sites used to have banner ads. Now they show posts that look exactly like t…

Yet when Apple adopts the same patterns, it feels less like "catching up" and more like quietly abandoning a standard they once benefited from

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#315

Post by KolibriFly »

Khaine wrote: post #309

This sounds horrible for user experience. That used to be Apple's claimed Raison d'être. It's sad how far they are willing to debase themselves to chase a few extra nickels. They are already one of the richest companies in the world. Surely they should focus on improving the actual quality of their products (particularly software), and developer experience and documentation, rather than further watering down their qu…

History tends to remember outcomes more than tradeoffs

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#316

Post by latexr »

browningstreet wrote: post #158
bool3max wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s interesting to me is that no matter how “hidden” the AD indicator may be, my brain always seems to very quickly train itself to swiftly skip such posts when scrolling/browsing. Or I could simply be another clueless victim of advertising. If only I could know the number of sponsored posts I never consciously acknowledge and am influenced by on the daily.

The problem with this, I've found, is that you end up skipping a lot of things, and then find out later on that features were introduced years ago that you've wished, throughout the interim, existed. It's hard to keep up. I wish there was regulation enforcing background colors for ads.

> The problem with this, I've found, is that you end up skipping a lot of things

The solution is to stop caring so much about what you miss. Whatever it is, it’s not worth the unrelenting assault on your senses.

Replace your FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) with JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out).

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#317

Post by KolibriFly »

atonse wrote: post #8

More and more evidence that the a-holes with spreadsheets are taking over at Apple and they’re completely devoid of any ideas on the software side. I heard someone randomly say that they should replace Tim Cook with Scott Forstall. I chuckled at the idea but this might be a great idea. Apple is having its Ballmer moment. Google did too before AI lit the fire under their feet. Who is going to be Apple’s next Nadella?…

Forstall is an interesting thought experiment, but probably pure nostalgia

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#318

Post by KolibriFly »

rgovostes wrote: post #104

This makes no difference, because I can’t remember the last time I installed an app other than for the occasional airline. From 2008-12 it was genuinely exciting to see what new apps were being released every day. Mobile games from that era had cultural impact. I bought $2 apps without a thought. But Apple incentivized monetization above all else and killed that excitement. Now you can’t find a tip calculator that do…

Subscriptions changed the psychology completely. Even when an app is objectively good, you're forced to evaluate it like a service contract

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#319

Post by MarginalGainz »

It’s the final stage of 'Search Enshittification'.

The core utility of a search engine is Relevance (finding the best match for user intent). The core utility of an Ad engine is Yield (finding the highest bidder).

When you blur the visual distinction between the two, you aren't just 'optimizing monetization', you are actively degrading the product's primary function.

From a UX perspective, this trains users to develop 'banner blindness' for the entire top half of the viewport. They stop trusting that the first result is the best result. It’s a short-term revenue extraction hack that burns long-term trust in the platform's neutrality.

Re: Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results

#320

Post by socalgal2 »

Hammershaft wrote: post #219
mdasen wrote: post #21

This is what basically everyone else has done over the past decade. Google used to put a different background behind ads in its search ( https://www.fsedigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Google... ). It made it really easy to tell what was an ad and skip over it quickly. Now it's a lot harder to quickly notice what's an ad and what isn't. Sites used to have banner ads. Now they show posts that look exactly like t…

Amazon is particularly wild because you can use the site without realizing %70 of your results are ads.

I'm not trying to excuse Amazon but you do know what like, super markets, best buy etc, take ad money (promotional money?) from suppliers who pay for placement. That Samsung TV at the front being pushed at you, that's effectively ad money Samsung paid to have their TVs put at the front of the store. Those cans of Coke stacked at the end of the isle or piled up near the entrance at your super market? Coke paid to have them placed there.

I'm not saying it's good or that therefore Amazon or Apple should be excused. I'm just saying, the naieve me thought Coke was on the end of the isle because the store thought it's what customers wanted. No, it's what Coke wanted, and paid for. And it's the same with Amazon and now Apple.

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