[colechristensen]

I have clicked on ads.

I wish ads were better or more relevant, I find myself spending unreasonable amounts of time looking for things which should be more easily found - a problem which could be solved with better advertising.

You could advertise books/shows/movies to me (based on your current search, your wish list, your past purchases, you might be interested in ...) because I'm certain there are plenty of books I would be interested in which I don't know exist ... but you would have to actually have a good model for what I would like and not just some NYT best seller / top 40 / whatever crap is popular and overpromoted.

The problem there is I'm generally only going to be interested in long tail items, and those are much harder to target and often nobody is interested in promoting them.

If I'm searching for restaurants or coffee shops, likewise I would be happy to see paid advertisements along with organic search results.

If I'm reading an electronics design blog, I would be happy to see ads for electronics tools, new components, suppliers, etc.

There are lots of potential ads I would click, many I wouldn't mind seeing at all. The problem I have with advertising is that what I get exposed to most is either completely irrelevant (become a member of AARP today!), promoting obvious products (drink Coke!), or promoting shoddy products or outright scams.

Here's an example of a site with sidebar ads I appreciate: https://www.eevblog.com/

>Who are all these people that subverted technology and turned it into advertising-tech?

Microsoft who started bundling "free" things with Windows to squash their competition. Everyone else who had to find a way to compete with them (and in turn everyone who wanted to compete with those companies, etc). Every customer who expects things to be "free".

[JohnFen]

> I wish ads were better or more relevant

I honestly don't. I actively don't want ads to be tailored to me, and not just because doing that requires spying on me.

In the past, most of the value that ads have given me have been as indicators of the target audience for content. For instance, I can leaf through a magazine I've never heard of and know, based on the ads, whether its a magazine I'm likely to enjoy.

Targeted ads completely destroy this value proposition, leaving ads without much value to me at all.

[graycat]

> there are plenty of books I would be interested in which I don't know exist ...

> The problem there is I'm generally only going to be interested in long tail items, ...

Yup. For that problem, did some original applied math based on some advanced pure math prerequisites and wrote the software for the math and for the corresponding Web site -- software appears to run as intended. Need to add some data and do an alpha test.

So, I am regarding your problem as a need for better Internet content (yes, including information about books, etc. not strictly ON the Internet) discovery and recommendation, and I'm regarding those as special cases of a much more general approach to Internet content search.

My work is to give you the content with the meaning -- artistic, utilitarian, political, technical, etc. -- you have in mind. So, I believe I've made progress on the meaning of content; a key here is some of the pure math.

Yes, my techniques should do much better at getting you the meaning YOU (extreme personalization) want than any top 40 style lists.

My view is that Google and Bing do REALLY well on about 1/3rd of the problem; I'm going for the other 2/3rds. Where Google and Bing work well, my work is NOT better. My work should be better in the 2/3rds.

I intend to announce an alpha test here on HN ASAP. Will look forward to the HN reactions.

At least initially, my site won't be very comprehensive. I intend to concentrate initially on fine arts, finance, nature, and a few more.

Yes, my Web site will be free to users and ad supported with my unique (methods and data) and hopefully especially effective ad targeting.

Yes, my work stands to be relatively good on user privacy: There are no logins; I make no use of HTTP cookies; and search results for a user have nothing to do with any history about the user; e.g., any two users doing the same search at the same time (before I update the data, say, say once a week) will get the same results.

Maybe someone will like it!!

[vbsd]

I’ve first read posts about your website many months ago, and I’ve been intrigued ever since. Could you share a planned release date, even if approximate and preliminary?

Also, it’s seems that your product has been “almost ready” for some time now, just out of curiosity, what are the main blockers?

[graycat]

I got interrupted by unpredictable exogenous events. Somehow when I get the last one handled, some more come along.

None of these events have anything to do with the project. The project is in good shape, and the work on the project that is uniquely mine has all been fast, fun, and easy.

I had a motherboard fail. I moved. And many more.

I better understand the advice to entrepreneurs -- "Never quit". Well, I don't want to quit, and I don't have to. Actually now my bank balance is growing nicely.

Most recently I've been setting up my new office -- it was a lot of work but looks good, efficient, functional, etc.

I'll get the nonsense out of the way and get back to the work.

The work to do now is reasonable. What has not been reasonable are the unpredictable exogenous interruptions.

Thanks for your interest.