[perl4ever]

I wish that for a variety of online activities, I could set a maximum bandwidth available for ads and have advertisers bid for it, to keep my system running fast. And in turn, Google (or others) could price its services based on how much bandwidth users put out for bid.

Edit: It should be obvious that you could do this with physical mail too.

[icebraining]

Why would anyone set more than the minimum?

[perl4ever]

In order to maintain access to (currently) free services without making one's computer unusable.

The problem I see is that the processing and bandwidth used by advertising are currently "as much as advertisers can get away with" and I think it's leading to a tragedy of the commons.

But I see no need to eliminate ads and free services either. There just needs to be a cap enforced on the resources used.

[lostlogin]

One day you’ll have the misfortune of seeing someones email inbox or browser set up (more toolbars? Yes please!) and the pain is going to be real.

[icebraining]

I've seen plenty of computers with a bunch of toolbars as I helped clean them up for friends and family, but they were never purposefully installed.

[lostlogin]

Less easy to explain are the countless advertising emails.