Yep thats right. I actually really like ads from google because it isnt obstructive and they actually help look for what your after. I am well aware of how they get this information so they can target things to you and whether or not you agree with this is i guess a different issue which i have some thoughts on but in the regards to just the adverts discussion alone and their "intrusiveness or helpfulness" i like them and think they are useful. Interms of ad quality tho, i cant say the same for facebook ads.

Many years ago when google first started doing targeted ads on their search i didn't even know they were paid for ads. I thought it was just a new design and didn't think much more of it. Then i realised "sponsored ads" meant they where ads people paid for and thought it was a much better way of doing it then how some search engines where doing it (which at the time) was artificially putting paid ads higher in the results which obviously skewed your search result and turned any good search engine into total crap.

Also currently im in aus and just launching a product and the traction has been pretty good and we have done so by using direct marketing but trying to get to a more global audience we cant do it the same way as we are when we do it locally.

We cant hand out flyers, we can do newspaper ads, hell we cant even talk to the target people, the best we can do is use facebook twitter and tools like adwords and admob and if you use these tools right people take notice and it helps build your business. Im happy these things exist cause otherwise how the hell do we get the audience on the other side of the world if we dont have presence there.