The squabble over Reader View got me thinking about this, and also when I try to search for campgrounds in a specific area.
In the quest to commercialize the internet and transition from old media to digital, businesses are getting royally hosed, especially small businesses. It used to be a simple thing to build a website, make sure your meta tags were relevant, and spend a few bucks getting it linked from various places. BOOM. People can find you. Now the search engines cough up their paying advertisers pretty much exclusively. If you don't advertise on Google, your website will likely not be found unless the searcher knows to type in your specific business name and location.
I have to believe Google did this on purpose, just like Yelp promoted itself as a legitimate review site, got everyone using it, then changed it so that only their advertisers will retain good reviews and the bad ones will be sloughed. You'd think this would violate antitrust laws and consumer protection laws. It's clearly a bait and switch.
Then there's the "here's this awesome new thing for FREE!" ruse. So you start to use that free thing, get used to using it, have some of your life invested in it, then they say, oh by the way, if you want to continue using this thing you have to give us all your personal information, including your friends' contact information. At some point they'll start requiring a fingerprint or DNA sample "for security purposes".
One of the things I'm brainstorming is how to promote local small businesses and put their name/product/service in front of their target audience in this new internet environment. What I know is NOT a good idea (talking to you, WSJ and WashPo) is to make people pay for a subscription to your website so that they can see your advertisers. That only lasts for a brief time before consumers don't want to access your site and advertisers realize what's going on and bail. I'm not a large fan of internet commercials that come blaring out of nowhere when you go to a page, and I dislike overly intrusive ads in general - I have much of that blocked. Some of my former favorite sites are so bogged down with ads and affiliate clickbait that they take forever to load and sometimes shut down my browser, so I don't go there anymore. The internet has become like a higgler village - you can't take two steps without being accosted.
Nobody likes being bombarded with advertising when they're watching TV or reading something on the internet, but that's how the content gets paid for. The co-goal is to create awareness for the advertiser. And you certainly don't want to piss off your consumer while trying to accomplish those things or they'll go away and not come back, then you'll have to figure out another way to make money.
I know nobody gives a crap about this except me, but that's what I'm thinking about this morning.
In the quest to commercialize the internet and transition from old media to digital, businesses are getting royally hosed, especially small businesses. It used to be a simple thing to build a website, make sure your meta tags were relevant, and spend a few bucks getting it linked from various places. BOOM. People can find you. Now the search engines cough up their paying advertisers pretty much exclusively. If you don't advertise on Google, your website will likely not be found unless the searcher knows to type in your specific business name and location.
I have to believe Google did this on purpose, just like Yelp promoted itself as a legitimate review site, got everyone using it, then changed it so that only their advertisers will retain good reviews and the bad ones will be sloughed. You'd think this would violate antitrust laws and consumer protection laws. It's clearly a bait and switch.
Then there's the "here's this awesome new thing for FREE!" ruse. So you start to use that free thing, get used to using it, have some of your life invested in it, then they say, oh by the way, if you want to continue using this thing you have to give us all your personal information, including your friends' contact information. At some point they'll start requiring a fingerprint or DNA sample "for security purposes".
One of the things I'm brainstorming is how to promote local small businesses and put their name/product/service in front of their target audience in this new internet environment. What I know is NOT a good idea (talking to you, WSJ and WashPo) is to make people pay for a subscription to your website so that they can see your advertisers. That only lasts for a brief time before consumers don't want to access your site and advertisers realize what's going on and bail. I'm not a large fan of internet commercials that come blaring out of nowhere when you go to a page, and I dislike overly intrusive ads in general - I have much of that blocked. Some of my former favorite sites are so bogged down with ads and affiliate clickbait that they take forever to load and sometimes shut down my browser, so I don't go there anymore. The internet has become like a higgler village - you can't take two steps without being accosted.
Nobody likes being bombarded with advertising when they're watching TV or reading something on the internet, but that's how the content gets paid for. The co-goal is to create awareness for the advertiser. And you certainly don't want to piss off your consumer while trying to accomplish those things or they'll go away and not come back, then you'll have to figure out another way to make money.
I know nobody gives a crap about this except me, but that's what I'm thinking about this morning.