<story><title>Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/03/business/media/amazon-digital-ads.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>scarface74</author><text>All of that data is still just based on Google trying to “infer” interests which is not as accurate as people &lt;i&gt;telling&lt;/i&gt; them about themselves. For instance, Facebook knows your relationship status as soon as it changes because most people &lt;i&gt;tell them&lt;/i&gt;. Facebook knows where people like to eat because people check in. They know which events you are going to that are advertised on FB because you tell them “that you are interested”.&lt;p&gt;Do you know how many people check in &lt;i&gt;every single time they work out&lt;/i&gt;?&lt;p&gt;People don’t use Google Maps when they know where they are going, but they will check in.&lt;p&gt;As far as adblockers blocking contents “in the DOM”, that doesn’t help if you’re using the FB app - one of the most popular apps in the store and most people aren’t going to install network based ad blockers.&lt;p&gt;Only geeks use Google’s DNS. Most people use whatever DNS the DHCP settings on thier router tell them. If you are using cellular data can you even change your DNS?</text></item><item><author>manigandham</author><text>Absolutely not the case. The Google machine includes:&lt;p&gt;Google Analytics, Adwords&amp;#x2F;Adsense, Doubleclick network, Android and store, Chrome Browser, Chrome OS, Maps&amp;#x2F;Streetview, Gmail, G-Suite, Youtube, Google Play, Google Fiber, Google Fi, Public DNS, all the various websites with 1st party cookies, connections to Salesforce CRM, and the recently announced Mastercard purchase data.&lt;p&gt;Facebook and Amazon are nowhere close this level of exposure from hardware devices to internet protocols to the biggest websites around, and anyone with experience in adtech will tell you the same thing. Also adblockers can trivially block any network request or DOM component on a page, including Facebook and Amazon ads.</text></item><item><author>scarface74</author><text>This is my bear case for Google. Google offers the least precise targeting compared to Facebook and Amazon.&lt;p&gt;Facebook knows more about its users because users tell it about themselves and Amazon knows more about purchasing habits of its users because of thier purchase and search history.&lt;p&gt;If I’m searching for something with the intention on buying it, I am going to go to the specific site - like Priceline, hotels.com, Zillow, etc.&lt;p&gt;Besides, ad blockers don’t work with Facebook or Amazon embedded ads.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>manigandham</author><text>What&amp;#x27;s Google known for? Search.&lt;p&gt;This means people tell it exactly what they want. Who cares what your relationship status is when I can see you type in &amp;quot;wedding ring&amp;quot; into a search box? Who cares where you like to eat in the past when you searched for &amp;quot;chinese food&amp;quot; on maps, and potentially even clicked on an ad for a restaurant?&lt;p&gt;This is called &amp;quot;intent&amp;quot; and it&amp;#x27;s incredibly powerful because you can advertise for exactly what a person is actually looking for at that moment. Inference (like Facebook likes and profile details) will never be as good for real-time targeting.</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon Sets Its Sights on the $88B Online Ad Market</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/03/business/media/amazon-digital-ads.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>scarface74</author><text>All of that data is still just based on Google trying to “infer” interests which is not as accurate as people &lt;i&gt;telling&lt;/i&gt; them about themselves. For instance, Facebook knows your relationship status as soon as it changes because most people &lt;i&gt;tell them&lt;/i&gt;. Facebook knows where people like to eat because people check in. They know which events you are going to that are advertised on FB because you tell them “that you are interested”.&lt;p&gt;Do you know how many people check in &lt;i&gt;every single time they work out&lt;/i&gt;?&lt;p&gt;People don’t use Google Maps when they know where they are going, but they will check in.&lt;p&gt;As far as adblockers blocking contents “in the DOM”, that doesn’t help if you’re using the FB app - one of the most popular apps in the store and most people aren’t going to install network based ad blockers.&lt;p&gt;Only geeks use Google’s DNS. Most people use whatever DNS the DHCP settings on thier router tell them. If you are using cellular data can you even change your DNS?</text></item><item><author>manigandham</author><text>Absolutely not the case. The Google machine includes:&lt;p&gt;Google Analytics, Adwords&amp;#x2F;Adsense, Doubleclick network, Android and store, Chrome Browser, Chrome OS, Maps&amp;#x2F;Streetview, Gmail, G-Suite, Youtube, Google Play, Google Fiber, Google Fi, Public DNS, all the various websites with 1st party cookies, connections to Salesforce CRM, and the recently announced Mastercard purchase data.&lt;p&gt;Facebook and Amazon are nowhere close this level of exposure from hardware devices to internet protocols to the biggest websites around, and anyone with experience in adtech will tell you the same thing. Also adblockers can trivially block any network request or DOM component on a page, including Facebook and Amazon ads.</text></item><item><author>scarface74</author><text>This is my bear case for Google. Google offers the least precise targeting compared to Facebook and Amazon.&lt;p&gt;Facebook knows more about its users because users tell it about themselves and Amazon knows more about purchasing habits of its users because of thier purchase and search history.&lt;p&gt;If I’m searching for something with the intention on buying it, I am going to go to the specific site - like Priceline, hotels.com, Zillow, etc.&lt;p&gt;Besides, ad blockers don’t work with Facebook or Amazon embedded ads.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>AznHisoka</author><text>“which is not as accurate as people telling them about themselves.”&lt;p&gt;I’d argue Google’s data is 100x more accurate of who I am as a person than the data I provide FB. As a theoretical example, based on my search history, Google knows I have hemorrhoids, am paranoid about pancreatic cancer, looking for a SMS API provider, am a borderline gambler (because i check betting odds every day), and pondering the benefits of a divorce.&lt;p&gt;FB on the other hand has all the “shallow” information. It knows I like Game of Thrones, NBA basketball and paintball. It knows I like to eat ramen. It doesnt know all the other stuff because I dont tell my friends I have hemorrhoids. I dont tell my friends I might be getting a divorce.&lt;p&gt;Does FB know the needs&amp;#x2F;wants&amp;#x2F;fears of me as a person compared to google? I think not.</text></comment>