[IsaacL]

I can't understand this snobbishness about ads. Advertising has made a lot of web companies a lot of money.

Yes, it's the uncreative default revenue stream. Unsure how to make money? Ads! But that's also a good thing - there's a default internet revenue model that works.

If you can make money via freemium/premium/whatever, bully for you. But don't knock ads just because you think the smartest minds "should be curing cancer, not optimising CTRs". Ads have helped support many world-changing web services. It is not a coincidence that 8 of the top 10 websites are funded primarily by advertising.