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I completely agree. I pity those PhD's using their Intellect for increasing Ad revenues to FB rather than creating/using algos to solve the pressing real-world problems - Diseases, Nutrition,Drought predictions,Curb terrorism etc. Are they even motivated by what they are doing..after all money is not everything (I agree FB pays a bomb).

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I can understand the feeling, but it might seem wasted but Facebook and Google have actually made it easier for small business to do business by enabling them to get segmented customers more easily by breaking down barriers for entry. 20 years ago one could not as a small company get US or global reach without using a lot of money and it was not easy (possible) to segment either. This again have increased competition and enabled new products an lower prices. The technologies pioneered by Google and Facebook (BigData, NoSql, ML) have again improved other disciplines and fields.

While true, I feel like they shouldn't break down all the barriers. They were helping small business do business before re-targeting. Just giving us an affordable way to get in front of interested prospects was huge.

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