[ninjagoo]

> Their purpose isn’t to be helpful. They're there to sell you something, and nothing more. Any semblance of helpfulness is misinterpretation and merely coincidental.

Maybe it isn't quite as black & white as that?

What about an ad run by a non-profit that doesn't have any marketing professionals at all? Said non-profit attempting to connect to consumers?

What about listings on craiglist? or facebook marketplace? or personal ads in the local newspaper?

Do you have a proposal/alternative to help with market discovery, customer discovery? Search has in the past served that function, but is likely to be soon dead.

[throwaway27448]

> What about listings on craiglist? or facebook marketplace? or personal ads in the local newspaper?

You opt in to looking at these, often for something specific. It doesn't lower your general quality of life like ads do.

> Do you have a proposal/alternative to help with market discovery, customer discovery?

Yea: we should stop building our society around encouraging people to buy crap they never asked for