
Ask HN: Who will win the ad-blocking fight, long term? - petra
There&#x27;s probably a fight brewing between adblockers and adtech companies - for example Apple&#x27;s latest adblocker.<p>So i wonder: We have examples from other areas like cryptography ,viruses , etc of such fights - and usually it&#x27;s possible to understand early on if there exist a power asymmetry (for example, it&#x27;s far easier to encrypt than decrypt) , and at least in general, deduce who will have the upper hand.<p>So can we say something similar about the ad-blocking fight, long term ?
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taprun
Everyone will win when producers find a better monetization strategy and we
get rid of ads entirely. Consumers will pay for things of value. Just look at
Netflix for but one example.

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insoluble
This view sounds a bit too Utopian for reality, but it sure would be nice. The
idea of everyone winning implies that goods, services, and other things of
value are distributed fairly. Marx seemed keen on this idea.

But I suppose there is hope. If systems like Amazon's recommendation system
got good enough, and if perhaps AI buddies began watching you and giving you
product advice at just the right time, advertisements could be a thing of the
past. The key is getting the right product options to the right consumers at
the right time.

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drdeca
>If systems like Amazon's recommendation system got good enough, and if
perhaps AI buddies began watching you and giving you product advice at just
the right time, advertisements could be a thing of the past.

That just sounds like targeted advertisements?

Or do you mean, specifically only when you are looking for the thing in
question, finding the thing which is most likely to be what you want?

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insoluble
Indeed it sounds like advertising on the surface, but my original thought was
more of something on _your_ side, like a buddy. In Amazon's case, the user is
indeed usually in the process of looking for products, so I am not sure that
really qualifies as advertisement. In the case of the "AI buddy", I meant not
so much a buddy whose purpose is to give you product advice, but more like an
all-around digital servant who helps you when you need information or advice
-- a digital butler.

Two of the most important factors are thus: consent and being driven by
consumers rather than producers. In the case of Amazon, to my understanding
the product recommendations ("Customers who bought this ...") are based on
purchase trends rather than on which producer paid the most to be listed
first. Hence, these recommendations should be based on consumer preferences
and product fit, rather than on bids by advertisers.

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cm2012
There are some comments dead and flagged in this thread that probably
shouldn't be, based on the text alone.

To add something more useful to this post, I imagine that the balance will
stay where it is now. Technical people will always find a way to use adblock,
but the vast majority will kept from using it with partnerships (a la AdBlock
Plus and Google) or tech.

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DanBC
Did you check the post history? Specifically this post (and the reply from a
mod)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10173736](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10173736)

Which follows this earlier post and warning:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10110718](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10110718)

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cm2012
That makes sense - did not check post history and thought flagged comments
were for the comment, not the user.

