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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

#381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

> I’m not willing to pay the apple tax any longer. Problem here is that when you decide you no longer wish to pay the tax and want to exit the walled garden, you discover that there's a heap of functionality and convenience you'll have to let go, and add complexity and cost to your setup. I actively avoided relying on iCloud even when it was the sane option, but many people that will feel like the walled garden is no…

> here's a heap of functionality and convenience you'll have to let go

That's a very outdated point of view. All mobile ecosystems have practical feature parity. Convenience - that's a tricky one. With Apple stuff, you only have convenience if you're one of the bubble people who has their entire family and close friends in the Apple ecosystem. The reality outside that is that for every 1 iOS person, there are ~2 non iOS people they need to collaborate with and share stuff. Convenience has left the room a long time ago.

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

#382
Apple, do you want to lose customers? Because that's how you lose customers.

But seriously, one of the reasons why I got iPhone for my parents to replace their Androids is it's relatively safer environment. But this change increases potential spam and attack surface.

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

#383
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On amazon.ie at least, the sponsored products are so hilariously out of place it's dead easy to spot them, and banner blindness kicks in. E.g. I search for "nuk baby bottle warmer" and the first result is a window washing squeegee and the second is a bathroom grime scrubber.

Works as intended. If you’re looking for a baby bottle it’s reasonable to assume that your house is in disarray from the whole new baby in the house thing, and it’s above average probability that you’ll buy completely unrelated products during your search.

Except a portion of the population has been accustomed to not buying crap that’s been pitched infomercial-style.

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

#384

Apple, do you want to lose customers? Because that's how you lose customers. But seriously, one of the reasons why I got iPhone for my parents to replace their Androids is it's relatively safer environment. But this change increases potential spam and attack surface.

It's impossible that they will loose more money from gone customers than make money from this change

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

#386
post #370

I feel these practices contribute to the post-truth society where a user looks for a fact and gets a paid-for opinion shoved in the face instead. It should be easy for the user to discern the factual relevance of search query results, and it does not bode well if the provider of the search functionality is in on the deceit.

> It should be easy for the user to discern the factual relevance of search query results

Is it even possible to structure incentives in such way that this happens? _Without totalitarian dictatorship methods_ if possible please.

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

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but I want to live in a world where software can be 'done.' With very occasional security updates perhaps. I don't want to justify why my pomodoro timer needs a subscription model with constant updates.

Apple is not good with backwards compatibility to my knowledge. If you buy a 'done' app it's basically a subscription (albeit much cheaper) for maybe 2-3 years because a yearly iOS update will most likely introduce breaking changes, as someone below me already outlined.

It’s still cheaper to buy the same $2, hell, $20 app again once the compatibility breaks than keeping all the subscriptions going on forever.

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

#388
post #335

there are already regulations in the EU which say - ADs need to be clearly recognizable as such - bunch of other things related to deceiving users and customer protection - the risk this enables in combination with target ads to trick a user into installing a look alike malware makes such designs IMHO negligent, and in the EU you are responsible for (your) negligence no matter what you put in some TOS so why do we to…

> so why do we tolerate Regular people outside tech couldn't care less. They scroll endless influencers pushing goods and services they were "invited", "collaborated with" with no advertising disclaimers, and they lap it up leaving streams of positive comments.

I know plenty of “regular” people saying “f this, it’s all ads, can’t even find anything anymore!”

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

#389
post #370

I feel these practices contribute to the post-truth society where a user looks for a fact and gets a paid-for opinion shoved in the face instead. It should be easy for the user to discern the factual relevance of search query results, and it does not bode well if the provider of the search functionality is in on the deceit.

> It should be easy for the user to discern the factual relevance of search query results Is it even possible to structure incentives in such way that this happens? _Without totalitarian dictatorship methods_ if possible please.

Put a sticky ad banner to the bottom instead of mixing it with the results?
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