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AdTech Sucks

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Re: AdTech Sucks

#121

Post by singron »

jrockway wrote: post #103
spectramax wrote: post #27

Is there a "pull" rather push aspect to advertisement? Sort of a trade-show equivalent of digital advertisement? Issues with pushing ads down my throat are as follows: 1. I don't want to buy another Sony XM3 headphones. I just fucking bought them and I am seeing more ads of the same thing. 2. Even if I saw ads for relevant accessories, say, I bought an iPhone and I am seeing ads for phone cases; I don't want to see t…

> 1. I don't want to buy another Sony XM3 headphones. I just fucking bought them and I am seeing more ads of the same thing. To be a devil's advocate, doesn't that mean that advertisers should get MORE of your personal data, so they know every product you own and won't suggest you buy something you already have? Whenever you see a bad ad, it means whatever privacy precautions you're taking are working. The advertiser…

A big part of the article is about how all the middle men want to spend more money, not less. For all the "tech" in AdTech, it's surprising how much gets canceled because it increased efficiency and made revenue go down. Even efforts to align incentives end to end like CPA (cost per action/conversion) don't do well for the same reasons.

Re: AdTech Sucks

#122

Post by logfromblammo »

MarkMc wrote: post #54
asenna wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give you a better example - I'm an English speaking guy consuming regular US content. I travel quite often and when I'm in non-english speaking places like Thailand, I see ads on Youtube(mobile) purely in Thai language. I use Google products extensively and Google most definitely knows I don't speak Thai. I mean it's almost ridiculous the number of Thai ads I've seen on Youtube. For a company that sophisticated…

This is exactly my experience. Go to Thailand, see ads in Thai. Go to France, see ads in French. Go to Indonesia, see ads in Indonesian. Google has paid thousands of engineers billions of dollars over 20 years and somehow they have failed on this very simple optimisation!

I'd be willing to advertise a culture string like "en-US" if I thought adtech would respect it, and not try to override it or profile me further.

Re: AdTech Sucks

#123

Post by saketuec »

spectramax wrote: post #27

Is there a "pull" rather push aspect to advertisement? Sort of a trade-show equivalent of digital advertisement? Issues with pushing ads down my throat are as follows: 1. I don't want to buy another Sony XM3 headphones. I just fucking bought them and I am seeing more ads of the same thing. 2. Even if I saw ads for relevant accessories, say, I bought an iPhone and I am seeing ads for phone cases; I don't want to see t…

> "However, when I am searching for a pressure cooker, it would be great to go to a centralized repository of ads and look through who markets this sort of thing the best and may be have some objective reviews along with it..."

Isn't this similar to what Amazon Marketplace does? Of course, they do allow advertisers to promote their stuff, but apart from a top few sponsored content, rest all are ranked by reviews (or so they say).

Re: AdTech Sucks

#124

Post by jodrellblank »

xixixao wrote: post #49
spectramax wrote: post #27

Is there a "pull" rather push aspect to advertisement? Sort of a trade-show equivalent of digital advertisement? Issues with pushing ads down my throat are as follows: 1. I don't want to buy another Sony XM3 headphones. I just fucking bought them and I am seeing more ads of the same thing. 2. Even if I saw ads for relevant accessories, say, I bought an iPhone and I am seeing ads for phone cases; I don't want to see t…

One thing you might want to think about: What role do the businesses that benefit from advertising revenue play. You're looking at advertising from the perspective of advertisers pushing themselves into your life, but have you asked yourself how they got that billboard onto the football stadium, that video in front of your favorite show, that page in your newspaper (whether digital or print). > Fuck advertisement. It…

Advertisement is literally as old as civilization.

Modern advertising is as old as Edward Bernays and the 1920s - https://intercontinentalcry.org/the-century-of-the-self-happ... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPmg0R1M04 [The Century of the Self - Part 1: "Happiness Machines" documentary]

Re: AdTech Sucks

#125

Post by reallydude »

AdTech is wonderful, from a technical perspective. The standards are rich while the ecosystem is rife with opportunity.

If you are a developer in AdTech, you will NEVER hear about interaction, or see contract, with most of the companies listed...other than a handful (maybe FB, maybe Yahoo, maybe Instagram). I've worked for Experian (the US Company) and talking about them in the AdTech space is the same as talking about HN in the cooking recipe space. There's a tiny bit of overlap, but it's largely pointing to shoehorned third parties because that isn't something Experian's existing infrastructure performs.

AdTech is fun, it pays well, and you get to be at the ground level of these moral compass debates. I have refused some pieces of work and AdTech is tolerant to negotiating concerns. I think most developers would benefit from experience in AdTech, even if it's just a short time.

Re: AdTech Sucks

#126

Post by seibelj »

reallydude wrote: post #125

AdTech is wonderful, from a technical perspective. The standards are rich while the ecosystem is rife with opportunity. If you are a developer in AdTech, you will NEVER hear about interaction, or see contract, with most of the companies listed...other than a handful (maybe FB, maybe Yahoo, maybe Instagram). I've worked for Experian (the US Company) and talking about them in the AdTech space is the same as talking abo…

I worked in adtech for a bit and thought the tech was really subpar. The engineer’s goal is try and find edge cases where the privacy controls of the OS / browser have gaps so you can better target and serve more ads. The ads themselves are garbage. Very underwhelming experience. Also it’s a race to the bottom. No VC’s want to invest in adtech anymore given that old tech has monopolized it and regulations are coming. No career path. Stay away.

Re: AdTech Sucks

#127

Post by r00fus »

reallydude wrote: post #125

AdTech is wonderful, from a technical perspective. The standards are rich while the ecosystem is rife with opportunity. If you are a developer in AdTech, you will NEVER hear about interaction, or see contract, with most of the companies listed...other than a handful (maybe FB, maybe Yahoo, maybe Instagram). I've worked for Experian (the US Company) and talking about them in the AdTech space is the same as talking abo…

> you get to be at the ground level of these moral compass debates

Is this a euphemism for "test your moral fibre"? I had a similar experience with a company that later turned patent-troll - not sure I'd wish that on anyone (high stress, not rewarding).

Re: AdTech Sucks

#128

Post by Barrin92 »

pedro_hab wrote: post #48
bad_user wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain.

AFAIK GDPR makes a slight difference because it requires opt in for data sharing. But I'd argue it is very hard, if not possible, to know if a company has shared your data. The damage of regulations like this may be greater than the benefit. We will see how the weak European innovation will take these changes. I say weak innovation bc VC money is not flowing there as it does in US.

the lack of VC culture doesn't indicate a lack of innovation, because the VC industry is just one form of financing businesses, very regionally limited to countries that have huge homogenous consumer markets and operate on scale. Innovation in countries like Germany is traditionally distributed.

And the idea that GDPR is damaging to innovation is really just a fiction at best and deregulation agitprop at worst. Europe has not competed with tech giants before GDPR, and more importantly, even other US companies cannot compete with Facebook or Google. You can measure the lack of competition in feet as you walk away from the Google and Facebook HQs. VC money in the US is geographically concentrated in an area that doesn't even cover 1% of the map, the law has nothing to do with it.

Re: AdTech Sucks

#129

Post by whatshisface »

reallydude wrote: post #125

AdTech is wonderful, from a technical perspective. The standards are rich while the ecosystem is rife with opportunity. If you are a developer in AdTech, you will NEVER hear about interaction, or see contract, with most of the companies listed...other than a handful (maybe FB, maybe Yahoo, maybe Instagram). I've worked for Experian (the US Company) and talking about them in the AdTech space is the same as talking abo…

>you get to be at the ground level of these moral compass debates.

That's the most generous way of phrasing it that I've ever heard... ;)

Re: AdTech Sucks

#130

Post by thirdsun »

saketuec wrote: post #123
spectramax wrote: post #27

Is there a "pull" rather push aspect to advertisement? Sort of a trade-show equivalent of digital advertisement? Issues with pushing ads down my throat are as follows: 1. I don't want to buy another Sony XM3 headphones. I just fucking bought them and I am seeing more ads of the same thing. 2. Even if I saw ads for relevant accessories, say, I bought an iPhone and I am seeing ads for phone cases; I don't want to see t…

> "However, when I am searching for a pressure cooker, it would be great to go to a centralized repository of ads and look through who markets this sort of thing the best and may be have some objective reviews along with it..." Isn't this similar to what Amazon Marketplace does? Of course, they do allow advertisers to promote their stuff, but apart from a top few sponsored content, rest all are ranked by reviews (or…

Funnily enough this kind of advertising has an adverse effect on me: Showcasing your product as sponsored content at the top of the search results at Amazon, as well as Google or the App Store, suggests that this is a subpar product that needs to pay to be relevant. I’m not sure how common this attitude is, but by now I subconsciously ignore these ads.

Of course there are also brands and products I know and like, which appear in these ads, but I see them as an exception, as a shining pearl in a sea of mediocrity, and continue to regard sponsored content as a strong indicator for lacking quality.

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