[Sigia-l] The Time magazine person of the year is YOU

[Ziya Oz]

Olly Wright:

> Personally I hate targeted advertising only a little less  than I hate
> non-targeted advertising.

You mean in its current form? Otherwise, that'd likely be an unsupportable
position in the ideal as the line between "advertising" and "information"
can be quite blurred. For instance, when you shop online, targeted ads can
be very helpful. Google's marketcap of $143 billion says I'm right. :-)
 
> It watches any streamed video and if it  finds you're watching an ad it
> removes it, either by fast-forwarding  (usually not possible) or by replacing
> it / covering it up.

What you are describing is technically very hard, as browser do not
currently parse the content of plug-ins in that manner. Later versions of
Flash for example allows bi-directional access between JavaScript and
ActionScript, but other plug-ins have extremely rudimentary browser-side
control.

FYI, there's a consensus brewing in the video ad business that's favoring
8-second post-roll ads after the main video is over and no pre-roll ads
before it starts.
 
> No idea if this is even a good idea,

:-)

> True they have a lot of money, but then they have shareholders.
> Shareholders that will jump ship if they see profits falling and no
> good plan to stop the rot.

Surely. That's not a theory, just look at the stock price of these companies
languishing. It's silly to argue otherwise. The fact that they are large
doesn't prevent them from imploding; examples abound for those who care to
do their homework. Time, for example, has been desperately trying for longer
than decade (from Qube to Pathfinder to AOL) to become a significant online,
transactional company...to utter embarrassment and colossal market cap loss.

> Personally I'd like nothing better than to see a radical shake up of
> the large media companies.

Too late for that.

> One wonders what the reaction will be to  the current era of excess that we
> live in.

Well, speak for yourself. ;-)

Ziya
Nullius in Verba