> TLDR:
AI is really good at detecting deceptive adverts - why isn’t Google using it?
I have the same question regarding “why is Workday’s resume parser so shit?”
Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
71–80 of 425 posts
Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
#72imagine if a TV network served scammy ads during prime-time TV.
Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
#73The answer is in Google's Capex trends:
2023: $32B
2025: $91B
2027: $300B (projected)
2029: $400B (projected)
“I’m happy to go bankrupt rather than lose this race” -Larry Page
Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
#74How weird. I reported this exact ad earlier today.
Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
#75Has anyone ever actually even purchased anything just because of an ad?
In fact, these days ads have the opposite effect: A repetitive ad turns people off from EVER checking out that product.
F Grammarly and ClickUp etc. I've never tried those products but I have disgust for them thanks to their ads.
Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
#76I don't think it is fair to pin this on Google - I get the worst ads on X. But something about how the X ad network works means that even when I report the ad, block the ad poster, etc. there is this army of alternate ad accounts that all show the same ad. I was feeling very guilty last night as I was watching YouTube and getting 30s+ unskippable ad blocks every 10 minutes in some video. And the repetition and low qu…
Why are you subjecting yourself to that instead of downloading Firefox + uBlock origin? See the headline of this article for Exhibit (I've actually run out of letters in the alphabet) why adblocking is a moral imperative.
As much I love a good old "Why don't you just ..." response that terrifically misses the point - in this particular case I was watching YouTube through their Apple TV app.
Now, there may be another "why don't you just ..." or "well, actually ..." response you have queued up, maybe some ramblings about a pi hole, or some anti-Apple hate, or some other solutioneering. Go ahead, tell me.
But it is the structure of incentive that forces this. The YouTube creators that make the content do need to get paid. And Google offers an option: Youtube Premium. That give both me and the creator what we want and (for the time being) removes the ads.
So either one is rich in time (doing whatever "why don't you just ..." hoop you expect me to jump through) or rich in money.
Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
#77Someone who has spent $100M+ on Google Ads explained to me that Google is doing everything possible to juice their revenue right now, in ways they've never seen before.
Seems like two things 1) Google is losing at AI and Sundar wants to mask this 2) AI is going to destroy their ad business and they want to get while the getting is good.
Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
#78They don't have liability for dodgy ads, but they are paid to run them. POSIWID.
Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
#79Google gave up, they know they’ve lost Search to ChatGPT
Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
#80I assume it is the same reason Facebook serves dodgy ads: it makes them money and they have had no liability for the material they choose to serve to users. There are a handful of types of content that could generate bad press (some sexual or racist content, for example), so they police those. But ordinary scams generate engagement and make them money, and since they are generally immune from liability for content under Section 230, there's no downside for them. I've always thought there might be an end-run around Section 230 where the algorithm is tuned to preferentially present fraudulent content, thereby implicating the company in the advertiser's fraud. But as far as I know, no one has tested that approach.