Re: [projectvrm] Google's attempt to make a safer ad medium

[Don Marti < >]

begin Jonathan Cobb quotation of Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 01:58:44PM -0700:
> On 6/12/15 10:14 AM, 'Don Marti' wrote:
> >We know that trustworthy ad-funded organizations
> >have been able to exist, because magazines funded by
> >advertising have been among the most reputable and
> >influential media organizations in the USA.
> Agreed, but of course a key difference -- traditional magazines (and
> TV/radio/etc), have a firewall of sorts between Sales and Content with a
> strong set of rules/ethics governing the relationship.

Ad/editorial separation is a great example of where
an ethical decision is the profit-maximizing option.

(Imagine that the NBA had "Big Data" based referees,
to make sure that the winner of each game was the
team whose media market had the largest expected
ad revenue.  This might produce higher revenue for
a single game or series, but would lower the value
of future games.  An ethical referee isn't just the
right thing to do, but also a key part of making a
valuable product.)

> Many Internet publications mirror this model, but some don't. Most services
> that are not primarily publications (Google/etc), intentionally blur (or
> outright erase) the line because there's a helluva lot of money to be made.
> Er, I mean, a better user experience for their audience, right?

Two strategies: targeting and signaling.  

  http://zgp.org/~dmarti/business/team-targeting-team-signal/

Google is an interesting case because they have the
technology to go either way. PageRank is an automated
reputation system, and the company has a lot of skill
in parsing and rating content.

If the web became a more trustworthy,
signaling-friendly medium, Google could prosper as
a platform for quanitfying and putting an interface
on signaling activity -- they're not obliged to be a
member of Team Targeting, and could play both sides
or switch.

-- 
Don Marti                    
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/