Why I Work on Ads
The author jefftk is getting unfairly downvoted maybe because cynics just see it as a version of, <i>&quot;It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.&quot;</i><p>I will offer a contrarian opinion as a <i>user</i> whose salary does not depend on advertising:  the advertising model for using Google search and watching Youtube videos <i>works better for me as a consumer</i>.<p>The alternative of paying $9.99&#x2F;month for Youtube... or micropayments for each search query or a &quot;Google Search Engine yearly subscription&quot; ... or Patreon donations for video content ... are all <i>more user hostile</i> for my use cases.  I don&#x27;t like ads but they are the most friction-free way to consume a wide variety of content.<p>I&#x27;ve been using Google Search for over 20 years <i>for free</i> which is pretty amazing.  Would I rather replay history and pay ~$120 every year (~$2400 ?) to search for web articles?  No.<p>That said, there are also many corrosive aspects of advertising.  Advertising should be open and transparent.  If the business of ads are truthful, I will sometimes <i>pay to see ads</i>.  E.g. I pay $10 ticket for a home &amp; garden convention show so the manufacturers in booths can <i>advertise their wares to me</i>.    The opposite and immoral idea of hidden ad tracking is Facebook trying to convince Apple not to show confirmation dialogs about ad IDFA tracking.