[aikinai]

> Apple is selling overpriced commodity hardware

This hasn’t been true since the 90s. And the rest of your examples are similarly ignorant of the incredible pace of innovation coming from a lot of these companies. Google ads might not be changing the world, but their peripheral technology certainly is. AWS and Amazon’s core business as well.

[FredPret]

Just one correction; targeted ads have enabled the existence of many small businesses.

Want to launch a board game aimed at left-handed nerds in a specific city? Before, you’d need a big media campaign that would also reach many right-handed non-nerds, wasting a lot of money. Now, you just need a few thousand $’s worth of targeted ads.

[splithalf]

Targeted ads are unethical and should be eliminated, the abuses are too obvious to enumerate. Prostitution and drugs have also enabled the existence of many small companies.

[FredPret]

Everything has an upside and a downside. Eliminating all targeted ads will lead to entrepreneurship being restricted to the rich or the well-connected, which is not only unethical but anathema to me and many others.

I think the way forward is somewhere in the middle, targeted ads with restrictions and opt-outs. Polarization isn't a path to progress.

As an aside, prostitution doesn't have to be the crime magnet it is today (in medieval Europe the Church ran brothels!) And while most drugs are unambiguously bad, some are considered safe enough to be traded openly and very profitably - caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and now marijuana.

[systemvoltage]

I agree. It’s interesting to look at Trade fairs and exhibitions. “Furniture industry fair” is targeted ads so to speak and benefit the industry by bringing producers to consumers under a single roof.