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Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

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Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#191

Post by jlarocco »

zwily wrote: post #140
Kurts wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter ads look like tweets, Facebook ads look like Facebook posts, and of course search ads look like search results, at least in Gmail they have their own designated area. They replace the webclip ads when the "promotions" tab is enabled: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2013/06/ads-in-gmails-promo...

So far, Google hasn't shown ads in search results that look like other search results though. This seems like a shift for them.

There's really no way to know that unless you work for Google. Some of the ads show up with a shaded background, maybe some of them don't?

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#192

Post by badclient »

Spooky23 wrote: post #163
notintokyo wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone have an idea what is happening to their margins by the way? Who is competing against the same ad dollars as Google (FB seems a bit different), if cost per click is going down, why?

I think they are like any other big industrial company. They build out factories (datacenters, networks, etc) based on a projection of long-term growth. Once you start missing those growth targets, it's like compounded interest... the impact of a small miss in year 1 has a big impact on the year 5 bottom line. They have a few issues IMO: - The market is saturated... how many more tiny classified ads can you sell? - T…

Also, because mobile has less space for adword ads.

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#194

Post by mortehu »

jlarocco wrote: post #191
zwily wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So far, Google hasn't shown ads in search results that look like other search results though. This seems like a shift for them.

There's really no way to know that unless you work for Google. Some of the ads show up with a shaded background, maybe some of them don't?

That is basically the original meaning of "don't be evil", or at least the one used in the IPO documents.

You would probably know, since it's hard to sell ads like that without telling people.

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#195

Post by ganeumann »

AndrewDucker wrote: post #10

I'd love for Google to work out how much money they make from me in a year, and then to offer to go ad-free for 50% more than that. At least then I could make an informed decision.

Google has $31 billion of advertising revenue on their own sites (says their 2012 annual report.) They have about 1 billion unique users per month (from Comscore.) So they have about $31 per user per year of ad revenue on their own sites.

My guess is that most of this is search. Although it may be possible to figure out how much revenue per user Gmail makes, my guess is that it is between $10 and $15 per year.

I think FastMail is significantly cheaper ($5/yr for a personal account, says their website at https://www.fastmail.fm).

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#196

Post by jpadkins »

6ren wrote: post #124
tiziano88 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do linux and open source have to do with this at all?

They are a counter-example: you are not the customer (you aren't paying for it), but you also are not the product.

Actually, I think you are the product for free software. Think in terms of non-monetary rewards. Developers get satisfaction and sense of achievement from the number of users using their software. So your usage is actually the 'product'.

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#197

Post by ry0ohki »

tiziano88 wrote: post #112
ry0ohki wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still have to keep all of my inboxes at zero. Every inbox must still be checked in case there is something mis-directed. I go out of my way to unsubscribe from most promotions, so no, even in the promotions box this is not welcome for me.

If you are following an inbox zero approach (as I am), then there's not much point in using the sectioned inbox IMO. I guess it might be useful if you receive tons of email and you want to sort of go through it in an ordered manner, but normally I tend to unsubscribe from things I am not interested in, so there are little or no messages in the other sections.

I do inbox zero as implied above and I thought I'd hate the sectioned tabs but I actually love it. Only because I make sure the primary inbox is cleared constantly, but can take my time getting to the social one (where it's very easy to just select all and delete).

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#198

Post by anon1385 »

moskie wrote: post #167

Hate to say "I told you so," but: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5787363 , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5787398

That's hilarious. You would think people would stop giving Google the benefit of the doubt when it comes to anything advertising related, but fanboys seem to feel no embarrassment at being proven wrong time and time again. Choice quotes:

No. It files all your emails that it classifies as promotional but non-spam. That won't include Google Offers and Zagat if you're not subscribed to Google Offers or Zagat (for me, it's mostly events & careers newsletters). It's just an auto-categoriser (a new UI for smart labels), it doesn't invent new emails that weren't there before.

I think you misunderstand what that tab is for. It's not a place for Google advertising; it's a place where promotional emails from any site are automatically sorted into - to keep them separate from other useful email. E.g. a clothing website that sends emails about weekly sales - that'll end up under Promotional.

the "Promotions" label is applied to your incoming mail that is best classified as a "Promotion", such as any promotional email from sites you shop at - it's not additional content that Gmail is feeding you.

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#200

Post by snowpalmer »

steveklabnik wrote: post #188
ryandvm wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that your OCD is their problem.

On the contrary, they take advantage of this kind of behavior to ensure that he sees their ads. It's a problem they created and exacerbate for their own profit. This is the whole point of 'gamification.' Dropping a number back down to zero is a form of this.

Total # of emails however can be setup to show only your "Primary" inbox. This allows me to check the other tabs much much less often since I'm only motivated to keep the # to 0.
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