Couldn't have happened to a nicer industry. :)
Just imagine for a second the total human time lost due to ads and all the productivity that could've been done in that time.
Just imagine for a second the total human time lost due to ads and all the productivity that could've been done in that time.
It doesn't necessarily need to be targeted web ads, I suppose you could use newspaper ads, or TV or physical letters, or spam email. Any of these work, but I think a new business would probably get the most bang for buck by targeting.
As soon as you start charging a fee, you eliminate huge swaths of the world population. Ads are an equalizing force.
And even if it is a zero-sum game, it would be a form of wealth redistribution from rich consumers to poor consumers. No one wants to advertise to poor people, they only want to advertise to rich people. But making a product ad-supported makes it free for everyone. Rich people's eyeballs are used to subsidize poor people's content.
Or we can talk about the purposeful obfuscation of the industry. How you have no way of verifying clicks, or views, or anything. How Cost Per Click is just an arbitrary number you and unknown others compete against, all for the pursuit of fake traffic and the hope of winning the advertising lottery.
It is more worth your time to play Three Card Monty on the street corner, because at least all parties agree that game is fixed.
When the online advertising bubble pops, it's going to go off like a fucking bomb, and we'll all be lucky to survive it.
Just because some people have $1000 doesn't mean that $5 isn't better than $0.
Getting them to admit any wrong, from a technical issue, to anything, is like pulling teeth from a live dinosaur.
Good. Hopefully they take their refund and invest it in something useful. But knowing the industry, the refund was in the form of an account credit, and that money is already lost to the system regardless.
Which account registered the "fraudulent * " clicks? That account receives $X per click, which we've determined, and no you can't see our math. Proprietary information, don't'cha'kno.
*Advertising host admits no wrong-doing, has investigated itself, and found itself not at fault. Offer subject to limitations. See Attorney General for details.
Did this many times over the years with respect to time lost as result of being forced to use a substandard operating system. Because it came preinstalled on PCs like the ones in used offices and there was no 386BSD yet.
The www did not come "preinstalled" with ads. But some companies want it to seem that way. False claim: "If no ads, then no www."