[mrweasel]

> The whole adtech vs. hand-crafted ad systems is a big question for small site owners who can't be asked to sell their own ad space etc.

Could the ad networks scan the site instead and use the content on the pages to determine likely target audiences? You could still do ad networks, and target audience, based on the site that they are currently on.

The current version of adtech is pretty damaging to society as a whole and it's getting increasingly worse. Apparently nothing online or content related is able to generate enough revenue to keep itself afloat without ads. Manufactures of TVs and cars are collecting and selling data to increase profit, but are themselves buying ads, making it akin to a pyramid scheme. Maybe we need to start taking a look at the industries that are heavily depending on selling ad space to survive and question if they need to exist, or should be transformed into actual products.

[alkonaut]

> Could the ad networks scan the site instead and use the content on the pages to determine likely target audiences? You could still do ad networks, and target audience, based on the site that they are currently on.

Yes. But it simply doesn't work as well for most cases as targeting based on what you watched on netflix yesterday, googled last tuesday, and what products you had in your shopping basked last year but removed before you checked out.

[mrweasel]

I'd still love to see the statistics that shows that hyper targeted ads are more effective to any reasonable degree.

What I'm currently browsing seems more relevant in many cases, as compared to which sites I visited last week.