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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

#151

Post by hdgvhicv »

galenko wrote: post #130
rgovostes wrote: post #104

This makes no difference, because I can’t remember the last time I installed an app other than for the occasional airline. From 2008-12 it was genuinely exciting to see what new apps were being released every day. Mobile games from that era had cultural impact. I bought $2 apps without a thought. But Apple incentivized monetization above all else and killed that excitement. Now you can’t find a tip calculator that do…

We are a dying breed. A whole new generation has never known an App Store without ads. To them this is the norm.

The time that an “App Store” existed and didn’t have adverts was very minimal. Like OP I haven’t browsed the iPhone App Store for over a decade. Occasionally a web page will send me to their app directly and if I want it (very rare) I’ll get it, same with installing specific apps - Spotify, YouTube, WhatsApp etc.

Apple used to charge money for a premium product where the customers were customers and not the product. It’s moving away from that.

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

#152

Post by echelon »

terminalshort wrote: post #145
echelon wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It ought to be illegal to host ads for registered trademarks (+/- some edit distance). Especially if you have a marketplace monopoly. Especially if you used overwhelming force to turn the "URL Bar" into a search product and then bought up 90% market share where you can tax every single brand on the planet. Google is the most egregious with this with respect to Google Search. It ought to be illegal, frankly. Google An…

If I search for a product or service I want to see their competitors too.

You could search for "{trademark} competitors", "{trademark} reviews", "{trademark} vs ...", etc.

For bare trademark searches, we could write laws that allow competitors, but restrict taxing and bidding off the reserved mark above the trademark owner's result.

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

#154

Post by andsoitis »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #108
mdasen wrote: 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. I pay Apple premium price for their phones. If they become as bad as the other, what’s the point to pay so much ?

You don’t think the hardware and software ecosystem are superior to the competition?

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

#155

Post by rchaud »

user205738 wrote: post #99
downrightmike wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a-holes with spreadsheets = MBA Same thing that killed Intel, Microslop, pretty much every american company.

The MBA was designed for those who did not want to study or could not master economics.(/jk or isn't)

So what if it is? A Master's in Economics gets you diddly squat in the job market whereas an MBA opens doors everywhere. You could get a PhD in Economics and still only work at a university, your country's central bank or at a stretch, the IMF or the World Bank, which are hardly held up as the pinnacle of professional development. And even then they'd only take you if you studied monetary economics.

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

#156

Post by stalfosknight »

bigyabai wrote: post #142
stalfosknight wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit silly to call it a monopoly. No one is forced to choose an iPhone over the many many Android alternatives.

But when you're forced to choose the App Store over the many many alternative .ipa distributors, it's perfectly logical and fair? Android is a hardware alternative - Apple needs upward pressure to make their services competitive. If you use a Mac this is already obvious, you can't buy industry-standard software on the App Store. They all avoid it like the plague when given the opportunity, and Apple deliberately clos…

The App Store is an integrated component of the iPhone experience.

It's perfectly fine to have different preferences but doesn't mean you get to meddle in the UI/UX of something you didn't create. If you really want to sideload, that's what Android is for.

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

#158

Post by browningstreet »

bool3max wrote: post #90
mdasen wrote: 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…

What’s interesting to me is that no matter how “hidden” the AD indicator may be, my brain always seems to very quickly train itself to swiftly skip such posts when scrolling/browsing. Or I could simply be another clueless victim of advertising. If only I could know the number of sponsored posts I never consciously acknowledge and am influenced by on the daily.

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.

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

#159

Post by terminalshort »

echelon wrote: post #152
terminalshort wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I search for a product or service I want to see their competitors too.

You could search for "{trademark} competitors", "{trademark} reviews", "{trademark} vs ...", etc. For bare trademark searches, we could write laws that allow competitors, but restrict taxing and bidding off the reserved mark above the trademark owner's result.

You should be able to explicitly bid on trademarks because you intend to compete directly with that business. Nobody should ever have a legal right to appear at the top of search rankings for anything. Laws restricting business competition are almost never a good thing.

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

#160

Post by MaysonL »

k2enemy wrote: post #148
atonse wrote: post #8

More and more evidence that the a-holes with spreadsheets are taking over at Apple and they’re completely devoid of any ideas on the software side. I heard someone randomly say that they should replace Tim Cook with Scott Forstall. I chuckled at the idea but this might be a great idea. Apple is having its Ballmer moment. Google did too before AI lit the fire under their feet. Who is going to be Apple’s next Nadella?…

I could not agree more. It probably doesn't help that I just spend an hour trying to figure out how to update to 18.7.3 on my iphone. It turns out you can't. The only way to get security updates now is to upgrade to iOS 26. Apple no longer supports security updates to old major versions if the device is capable of running the new major release. Apple is no longer making choices that benefit customers, but ones that b…

18.7.3 is still available for download via a paid developer account, not sure about a free one.
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