Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

blog.google

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 603 posts

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#481

Post by BLKNSLVR »

drfloyd51 wrote: post #246
jordigh wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An ad is never helpful because ads are designed to mislead me into buying something I didn't need or knew about before I saw the ad. If nothing else, an ad cannot impartially compare a product with the competition (and sometimes the "competition" is buying nothing at all), therefore every ad lies. If I already needed or knew about it, I didn't need the ad. If I was happy with my life without the product advertised, I…

I saw an add for a medicine that was new on the market and my friend who could use the meds, was unaware of its existence. Now, after a doctor’s involvement, my friend is on the new med and it treats their condition better and the quality of their life is improved.

Are you the said doctor, drfloyd51?

If so, I'm not so sure it is advertising, as being discussed here, that you're referring to.

If not, funny coincidence.

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#482

Post by akerl_ »

saghm wrote: post #462
criddell wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a hard time believing the stock price is based on anything other than vibes. It's up 125% from a year ago!

Given how nowadays the payoff of a stock seems to just be from selling it later rather than having any direct correlation to the companies finances, it's all just a Ponzi scheme based on vibes.

When was the payoff of a stock not from selling it later?

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#483

Post by rockinghigh »

alex1138 wrote: post #477
noosphr wrote: post #471

I guess the google bot is now on by blocked list. There should be a public corporation, like Wikipedia, that starts scraping the Web and provides an api for anyone to access.

But does Google actually 'own' the index? Have they acted anticompetitively as far as that goes?

They own tons of engagement data associated with that index from being the default search engine on most devices.

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#484

Post by BLKNSLVR »

jodrellblank wrote: post #404
pasquinelli wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so in your mind "advertisement" covers any transmission of information?

so in your mind, a pharmaceutical company telling a patient that a drug exists is "advertisement" but a pharma company telling a doctor that a drug exists magically isn't?

Yes.

The first gets blasted all over the internet to be shoved in the faces of all and sundry.

The second goes quietly and efficiently to the professionals tasked with helping the individuals in society with problems that may directly benefit from new thing.

The distinction, to me, is obvious.

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#485

Post by Gigachad »

MattRix wrote: post #356
FinnKuhn wrote: post #7

I would have expected them to wait with ads until OpenAI starts first and users switch to Gemini. Google is probably the player that could afford to wait the longest with this and increase their market share that way.

The idea that users will switch because a platform has ads has never played out in the past. The average user just doesn’t care.

Most platforms have a lot of cost and friction to moving. LLMs are all basically the same thing.

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#486

Post by rockinghigh »

FinnKuhn wrote: post #7

I would have expected them to wait with ads until OpenAI starts first and users switch to Gemini. Google is probably the player that could afford to wait the longest with this and increase their market share that way.

It may be a push from advertisers who want access to this format. Google Search competes for their money against the competition.

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#487

Post by BLKNSLVR »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #327
jordigh wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An ad is never helpful because ads are designed to mislead me into buying something I didn't need or knew about before I saw the ad. If nothing else, an ad cannot impartially compare a product with the competition (and sometimes the "competition" is buying nothing at all), therefore every ad lies. If I already needed or knew about it, I didn't need the ad. If I was happy with my life without the product advertised, I…

I need a new dishwasher. I dont want to go knocking on doors until I find somewhere that sells them. Im glad they have signs, webpages, and info sheets. Promotion and discovery are important. Advertising is the spread of information. Of course some can be bad or misleading, and that is bad.

That's the way I got all my stuff. Knocking on doors. If there's no answer then I see if the door is unlocked. If it is... new stuff!

I've tried to match the absurdity of your example.

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#488

Post by [deleted] »

mrweasel wrote: post #250
sedawkgrep wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when have we considered ads something helpful? Their purpose isn’t to be helpful. They're there to sell you something, and nothing more. Any semblance of helpfulness is misinterpretation and merely coincidental.

> Since when have we considered ads something helpful? At some point Google ads where genuinely good and helpful to me. If you needed to buy something, and you didn't know who sold it or what it was called, the Google ad engine would yield better results than their search. Now Google also broke that part. All ads I get are for Temu, Fruugo and other weird sites that I guess does drop shipping, maybe some marketplace…

[deleted]

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#489

Post by BLKNSLVR »

nelblu wrote: post #15

> We’re introducing more helpful ads in AI Mode I always chuckle when ad companies say that. I have never seen a helpful ad in google search, but well I have been using adblockers forever so I would not know.I am honestly curious though, for those who don't use adblockers - what percentage of ads that you see are actually helpful?

I use an ad blocker, but I'm occasionally exposed to YouTube outside of my ad-free bubble and I find the ads useful for identifying brands to actively avoid.

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#490

Post by Zambyte »

samat wrote: post #470
cebert wrote: post #457

It’s good to know that Google search will essentially be useless for me moving forward.

Yeah, thank you Google for the heads up, will look for alternatives (tbh already abandoned Google long time ago, need to find a maps alternative with public transport and working hours, near impossible in small European towns, Apple Maps db here is a joke)

They should be provided by the transit system. I'm visiting The Netherlands for the first time right now. I learnes the hard way to use https://ns.nl instead of Google Maps.
Post reply on HN