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But if I want relevant ads don't I want them relevant to things I'm searching for anyway? I.e. advertise things on sites (and sections) where I'm looking for that category anyway.

There's no need for 'targeted' ads that follow me around if the ads are in the places I expect when looking for something.

Content providers should be ensuring they display quality and relevant ads, not relying on 'other' services to come find the consumer.

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Quality and relevant ads is exactly what targeted marketing is about. If the advertiser doesn't know who I am how will she know to serve me a qhality and meaningful ad? Maybe if it's targeted to what I'm searching for and it often is, but that leaves out a lot of people that rely on advertising, like newspapers and social media companies. What's a relevant ad for a news article?

>If the advertiser doesn't know who I am how will she know to serve me a qhality and meaningful ad?

The same way they do in television, radio, film and every other medium?

> Quality and relevant ads is exactly what targeted marketing is about.

Not really. Targeted marketing is about particularly narrow conceptions of quality and relevance. IMHO, the logic of targeting and tracking has severely twisted the meaning of those terms in marketer's minds.

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