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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

This is a silly argument. Don't you think you'll have a much better chance of finding a better mouse trap by actively searching Google for it than by waiting for some targeted ads to come by?

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Let's say that your search for mouse traps comes back with the classic type that kills.

Wouldn't it be better that you see an ad for a no kill mouse trap that you didn't even know was a thing? Ads can sometimes inform people about products that they didn't even think existed.

But a Google search is specifically designed to solve this problem. Targeted ads, however, also could mislead, distract, cause overconsumption, and invade your privacy.

And if there was a better mouse trap, then any salesman would quickly learn about it (e.g. at business conferences etc), so you could just go to a shop and ask.

Finally, if you really insist that targeted ads are superior to anything else, then you could just opt-in to a service that provides ads. And you could tell the service all your private details so it knows how to better serve you (without the service having to guess at it).

Just don't assume that someone else needs targeted ads to have a fulfilling life.

I almost always hold off on purchases for a few days to compare what I eventually put in my cart (if anything) to ad-served competitors. There's usually very little overlap with them and the products I was already looking through, so it's a nice additional avenue of shopping around. Sometimes the ads include discounts/promotions as well, which is an added bonus.

Not if you don't know that the better mouse trap was even possible. You are not going to search for "breathable, waterproof shoes" if you don't know GoreTex is a thing.

Granted somewhere in the last 20 years we have mostly stopped innovating and started optimizing and so now you get ads for branded Skinner boxes (sorry, free to play mobile games) rather than, say, cancer cures but if there were innovating products worth buying, you wouldn't search for them because you wouldn't even be able to imagine them.

> Not if you don't know that the better mouse trap was even possible. You are not going to search for "breathable, waterproof shoes" if you don't know GoreTex is a thing.

Sure I am, if I care about shoes being breathable and waterproof. Why would I not do that, and instead hope a magic box will read my mind and guess what I need?

Most people who get wet shoes just accept it as part of life. They don't get on Google and ask how to prevent wet shoes because they don't want to go around wearing kayaking shoes all the time.

The fact that there exists normal-looking waterproof shoes isn't something that they know about or would search about

Growing up in the pacific northwest, I don't think this is a most people thing. :) everyone I know walking around there cares about wet feet, since it's likely to happen 270 days out of the year.

Evolution will take care of people who don't know how to address their own needs.

If we don't let that happen, this might be the result:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy

I did search last year, before it was invented. Why am I supposed to search again in hopes one exists now?

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