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

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

#541

Post by Forgeties79 »

thewebguyd wrote: post #473
Forgeties79 wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average user appears to care enough to go out of their way to use browsers and extensions and such that block ads, to the point that Google has spent enormous amount of time and money breaking those tools. I think that’s definitely something to consider. Anecdotally, the number of people who have asked me about VPNs over the last 12 to 18 months has skyrocketed. I probably get a message a month from people of all…

> The average user appears to care enough to go out of their way to use browsers and extensions and such that block ads The average user isn't going out of their way to use ad block, at least globally. Last estimates I remember are still around only 30% of internet users using an ad blocker unfortunately. Ad blocker adoption is heavily skewed toward techies. It's an even lower amount of people on mobile, where the 'a…

30% of the general population is a staggering number for basically anything voluntary. I don’t know how you can possibly trivialize that number.

If you can get 30% of the population to boycott anything it’s not only significant but forces a response out of the group on the other side. You’re talking almost 1 in 3 people. Those are literally historic numbers.

Do you have any idea how much companies spend to increase their conversions by single digits?

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

#542

Post by Forgeties79 »

lmm wrote: post #528
Forgeties79 wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average user appears to care enough to go out of their way to use browsers and extensions and such that block ads, to the point that Google has spent enormous amount of time and money breaking those tools. I think that’s definitely something to consider. Anecdotally, the number of people who have asked me about VPNs over the last 12 to 18 months has skyrocketed. I probably get a message a month from people of all…

> Anecdotally, the number of people who have asked me about VPNs over the last 12 to 18 months has skyrocketed. I probably get a message a month from people of all backgrounds. That's probably more to do with the increasing popularity of China-style national firewalls/tracking (sorry, "age verification") than ads.

Negative. They all want to block ads and protect their identity insofar as they can. Most of them don’t even realize the age verification stuff is going on. My friends that do know about that already have enough technical literacy that they don’t need to be asking me these questions

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

#544

Post by troad »

NotCamelCase wrote: post #292
neuropacabra wrote: post #222

I never got into DuckDuckGo, but here we go. Defaulted from yesterday when Google made AI Search a default for Google Search. Well, I have been using Altavista and others so I can get used to another one.

I can't understand why this company won't rebrand itself to something a bit catchier or better-sounding name than DuckDuckGo -- who the hell wants to say that ? Unless it's a self-selection filter...

Relatedly, it doesn't help that 'Kagi' sounds like poop in half of Europe.

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

#545

Post by crooked-v »

janalsncm wrote: post #511
svieira wrote: post #386

The particularly worrying thing here is that they're now going to be gathering training data for a conversational model on _how to influence people effectively even when they already know they are being influenced_. Even more than RLFH already does. "We had to build the Torment Nexus so our children could eat" is not a good reason to build the Torment Nexus. The fact that they are not committing to not doing this tel…

While this is true, it is less effective than you might think in practice. Researchers studied something similar six months ago: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/12/researchers-find-wha... Of course it is possible Google will create something orders of magnitude better but I doubt it. Amazon is already doing product recommendation on their front page and while it certainly drives sales it doesn’t turn people into…

> Amazon is already doing product recommendation on their front page and while it certainly drives sales

For me it's mostly been the "this person bought a vacuum, time to advertise 50 other vacuums to them" kind of result.

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

#547

Post by thayne »

pavlus wrote: post #439
thayne wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the only local options are Walmart and maybe Target and the local Kroger subsidiary, it isn't much better.

I'd assume they meant self-hosted inference.

Ohhhh... Yeah that makes sense.

There's still the possibility of some form of ads getting embedded in local models, or biases that favor certain sponsored content, which is one reason why having more than just the weights open is important. But that's probably a less immediate threat.

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

#548

Post by soloto »

embedding-shape wrote: post #77
soloto wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Local AI will have the bias that existed at the time of its training, which is different from no bias. For stuff that needs to be current, a local LLM would need to search the net regardless.

And since "no bias" isn't something that actually exists in reality when it comes to language or even anything near humans, "bias in local model I can introspect" will always be miles ahead of "bias I know is there, but cannot introspect".

Agreed in full.

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

#549

Post by lelanthran »

daveguy wrote: post #317
lelanthran wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Now, if you're talking about internet ads, then you're talking about a different beast altogether (B2C), and those ads can be helpful to purchasers if they were already in the market for $FOO. > You argue that ads can be helpful... by saying all the ways ads are helpful to the business. Are you sure that's all I said.

Your example on the statement was about the companies. What Google said has nothing to do with the companies. They're clearly trying to paper over the manipulation. I was giving you that credit for the one thing they're slightly good for once. But really we all know that consumers can find products just fine on their own through word of mouth and reviews. But advertisers manipulate that too with paid reviews and astr…

My point was that sales people don't want to waste time talking to people who aren't interested.

Are you sure your derision is warranted?

> You are a true advertiser. Congratulations.

I have never purchased any online ads. This is how far off the mark you are.

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

#550

Post by anomaly_ »

rchaud wrote: post #527
MattRix wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Plenty of iPhone users are on Brave Browser because it blocks ads on Youtube. When you type in a search query in the address bar, it defaults to Brave Search. Don't underestimate the power of defaults. There is a boiling point for user tolerance when it comes to ads. Google has been pushing that needle deep into the red for years now.

No meaningful amount of iPhone users use Brave.
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