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Comment by teekert | Hacker News Reader

They talk about Apple maps and I for one would like to be able to say I’m looking for a restaurant and see the logos pop up along my route.

I’m just hoping Apple will keep their privacy focus. Ads and privacy do not need to be opposed ideas. Ie, my fav Dutch tech blog tweakers.net recently removed all tracking form their ads and serve them locally. I gladly turned off adblock for them and the site was still pleasant. Ads are tech relevant, well labeled, unobtrusive and not about what I bought 2 months ago, win win.

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> They talk about Apple maps and I for one would like to be able to say I’m looking for a restaurant and see the logos pop up along my route.

But then you don’t really want ads: you want information (facts about the local business near your position), ideally factual, impartial and unbiased. The fact that a lot of people seem to conflate both is actually a PR tour de force from advertising companies. Do you really want the prominence of local bars being a function of the tax they pay to advertisers?

All I want is to easily be able to tell Maps “find the next exit with a McDonalds” but this is too complicated a query and so you need a copilot to fight the maps (or use Google maps to find the McDonald’s while leaving the original on your destination on Maps).

I've actually done this multiple times on google maps - search along route is the feature

There is a feature to search along the route.

If they serve them locally (same domain as / part of the main site) they could still track you on the backend and you wouldn't even know it.

I was thinking of something similar. It really depends on the ad. Something like this is or ads with search results don't really bother me as much, if it's relevant to what I'm searching for. However the relevant question is, how secure is our data. The privacy issue didn't actually catch on to the mainstream until people realized just how leaky Facebook is, with 3rd parties gaining access to your entire life.

>They talk about Apple maps and I for one would like to be able to say I’m looking for a restaurant and see the logos pop up along my route.

How would you feel if only the logos of the highest paying corporations popped up? There might be the best Mom and Pop Restuarant that every existed on your route, but you're not going to see it for all the mcdonalds and subway logos they throw at you.

Unobtrusive ads have nothing to do with serving them locally, and are main reason why people have problems with them.

Give it some time. Ads become obtrusive because it works and it brings more revenue.

They had tracking ads, everybody blocked them, then they changed it.

Non tracking ads bring very little revenue as ads all about effectiveness. After initial experiments and cool off period you’ll either see more ads, tracking or scaling down of operations due to limited revenue.

Id think a tech blog with tech ads will work better than a tech blog with ads for the outdoor headlamp I ordered weeks ago.

I assume you do understand that you seeing ads for outdoor headlamp you've ordered weeks ago is a proof that you actually have some privacy? Conversion signal (as in - you've purchased the product) didn't reach the ad network, for whatever reason.

Also - what do you think brings more money for the publisher - ad for outdoor headlamp (that you already bought, but still, you're potentially "lucrative" customer, as you are interested in this product) or a same ad for Windows 10 for 3 years, while you run everything on Linux and never touched Windows in your whole life?

"Tech" is a very very broad category. There's a reason why tech sites serve non-tech ads and personalized ads took over internet.

Well this is not a story about a tech blogger.

This is a story about a Corporate Mega Machine with thousands of Corporate Robots all programmed with the same code. To optimize for growth. One robot opposes it. Ten robots will line up to slit its throat and take its place.

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