argumate:

squareallworthy:

argumate:

nianeyna:

I really do believe targeted advertising is a scam. Like there really is no need to spy on me to find out what I like! You literally could just ask. If anyone ever asked me what types of things I like to buy I would be THRILLED to say, “video games and m/m romance novels please!” and then, if you served me ads for those things (and I could be reasonably sure that they actually linked to a place where I can buy those things and not to some sort of malware) then I would click on the ads and I would buy shit. Amazing!

I would be happy. The people who sell video games and gay erotica would be happy. The website that got my clicks on their ads would be happy. Everyone! Everyone would be so much happier if we just did this very easy thing!!!

Except the people who make their money by selling stolen data and convincing people that there is just No Other Way to find out what people might like to buy, I guess. But since those people are literal demons I’m okay with them being unhappy.

damn, maybe the only reason we don’t have a service like that is down to the historical quirk of Google hating the idea of serving Actual Customers and preferring to just treat them as sources of data to be mined instead

We do have a service like that. Google runs one, which they call “Google.” The way it works is you type in strings of text like “video games” or “gay erotica” and then it serves up some ads for where you might get those, along with links to what it thinks are relevant web pages.

it serves up some ads [ from whoever bid the highest on those keywords multiplied by which gets the most clicks thus earning Google the most revenue and encouraging all kinds of marketing kookery ]

Yeah I’ve Googled up like, “FLIR” or “industrial gas turbines” out of how-it-works curiosity and then gotten ads about literally nothing else for a week on the off chance I’m a purchasing manager about to make a six-figure decision