> ...there's at least one downside that users might notice: lots more ads targeted only by the demographic of the publication, making the web look more like print media or TV...
...this is bad? Sounds great to me.
> ...showing ads for things you don't care about.
This is what targeted advertising already accomplishes: showing me ads for things (or equivalents of things) I already own. Either that or things so wildly off base I have to wonder if the targeting works at all.
Yes, advertisers would love to stop showing you ads for things you just bought. If you see a wildly off base ad, it's likely not targeted, it's just part of an ad buy.
Targeting only by the demographic of the publication is not so great because publishers usually only have a vague idea who their actual demographic is. Take for example the TV show Golden Girls. It was supposedly all about the 50+ demographic, but it was a huge with with queer people of all ages right from the start.
> If you see a wildly off base ad, it's likely not targeted, it's just part of an ad buy.
I usually see such ads them immediately after purchasing the item in question. It's almost as if the targeting models are, in an abstract sense, extremely over-fitted.
> Targeting only by the demographic of the publication is not so great because publishers usually only have a vague idea who their actual demographic is.
As far as I'm concerned, coarse granularity targeting is a feature, not a bug. I often discover legitimately interesting things I didn't know existed but are adjacent to my interests in venue-scoped advertisements.
Even if I didn't find targeted advertising morally objectionable (I do) I would still consider it functionally inferior to more coarse-grained venue/demographic/etc-based placement.
Targeted advertising doesn't help me discover new things, it tries to preempt purchases I'm already likely to make, and put them in front of me. I don't think that's actually very useful.
If you see an ad for an item you just purchased, that's definitely targeted. By "wildly off base" I mean for something unrelated to any of your interests or site where it runs.
...this is bad? Sounds great to me.
> ...showing ads for things you don't care about.
This is what targeted advertising already accomplishes: showing me ads for things (or equivalents of things) I already own. Either that or things so wildly off base I have to wonder if the targeting works at all.