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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

#401

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…

>you discover that there's a heap of functionality and convenience you'll have to let go,

Cloud storage of pictures is not an issue as I do regular backups (we all should, we’re a false positive account termination away from crying otherwise).

What’s else is there? I’m not American so no iMessage, I struggle to find some other blocker.

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

#402
post #372

Honestly, I use iOS purely as anti-Facebook guardrails I trust there's granular permissions so that Zuckerberg can't scrape contacts I understand there's corruption, and that annoys me. I wish Apple remained pure. But you still have to do this. Zuck is malicious as hell and we need sandboxes

This is also very easy to do on Android. IOS devices are not magic in their ability to block Facebook tracking.

Perhaps, though Apple outright revoked FB's certificate after the Onavo nonsense, that counts for something

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

#403

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…

Other than blue bubbles, you aren't leaving behind much nowadays. Apple is now lagging in general usability vs competitors, Siri as one glaring example.

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

#404

The search results in the App Store are ridiculous. Sometimes I search for an app by name and have to scroll through dozens of other apps before finding the one I had searched for. App Store search is as broken as Apple Mail search, if not worse.

What they want is the app to pay for ads placement for their own app, to have to out-bid the competition.

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

#405
post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 solution to the plague of ads is to just stop buying so much shit. Most the stuff we buy shouldn’t even exist in the first place.

> Most the stuff we buy shouldn’t even exist in the first place.

But how would we know what should or shouldn't exist, if someone doesn't bring it into existence first so we can figure it out?

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

#406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

How about: zero ads permitted at all?

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

#407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the vast majority of people recognized ads and skipped them as more technically minded people do, they'd either not do that or step up a notch and make them even harder to spot. The reality is that these dark patterns do work for a large part of the users. We're the lucky few who can stay away though it is taxing and tiring.

The sickening truth is that most normals don't turn their attention in another way even when they recognize an ad for what it is.

Why should they if they’re buying some commoditized item on amazon, for example? I bought an ergonomic ice pack for my knee this morning, something I couldn’t find in the store near my house. Why should I scroll past the first, cheapest, decent looking item that meets my needs? As a moral duty, perhaps. At any rate, advertisement doesn’t necessarily mean scam.

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

#408

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…

>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.

Which is?

Every time I got an Apple product, it felt like a step back. They were late to widgets, late to AI. Their security is historically poor.

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

#409
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.

It’s still better than the alternatives

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

#410
At a glance I don’t really see how this is meaningfully worse at differentiating.

If you saw more than 2 apps on the screen at a time the blue background might serve to distinguish ads from organic results, but when it’s the only thing in your screen-view with a few pixels of the next result peeking out from the bottom, then it just looks like they’re alternating colors from one row to the next.

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