[SnowLprd]

It's not the advertisements I find unsavory — it's the spin. Rather than just say, "We will be introducing a new type of ad that we hope users won't find too intrusive," they instead refer to the ads as "content" and spin them as conversation starters.

I agree that ads have their place, particularly in a free product or service. But since you brought up Google, I'm not sure we should be holding them up as an example of how to do un-intrusive advertising:

http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/google/world/