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Comment by jefftk | Hacker News Reader

I don't think advertising is harmful in general, and I think an ad-funded web is likely much better than a paywall-funded web. More: https://www.jefftk.com/p/why-i-work-on-ads

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In theory, ads are great, I'd like to hear about products and services that can solve problems or improve my quality of life. In practice, my experience of ads on the web is to degrade the user experience of the page I came to see and to build intrusive personal profiles on what my interests are believed to be (which often seems to result in being repeatedly fed the same ads for products I've already purchased)

Anecdotally the best advertising I have engaged with and bought the most as a result of is content based, not personalised for me in any way (i.e. podcasts before dynamic ads became a thing)

>Anecdotally the best advertising I have engaged with and bought the most as a result of is content based, not personalised for me in any way

I'm curious what you bought and how you interact with ads.

For me, I bought a house. I worked closely with a realtor to find my house. That experience was highly personalized.

Some general examples for me would be:

  - Watching a board game video, here are ways to buy the game/expansions/similar games
  - Listening to a book review, here are ways to buy the book/other books by the author/art related to the book
  - Listening to a tech podcast, here are tech related services that may have been discussed

I'm sure it's different for many people and perhaps personalisation helps in many cases, but for me the context of what I'm doing/looking at is most important, causing a context switch/distraction from what I'm trying to do is more likely to be irritating

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