A blog post lamenting the demise of Google Adwords.

mapontosevenths 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

AI is built with content from the open web, but it has also killed the open web. The death of Adwords is only one symptom of that.

I don't know what comes next, I just know it will be worse.

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shadowgovt 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It wasn't really AI. Fundamentally, building a website the "traditional" way (hosting agreement, apache install, your favorite way to convert data formats that don't hate you into HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) was always a learned and quite technical skill; most people weren't doing it for fun, they were doing it because it was the only way to be on the web.

What killed the open web was Facebook, Twitter, and their ilk replacing that whole mess with social media profiles, networking connections, and templated, pre-fabricated organization home pages. When social networks became dominant enough that businesses could use it to get their info out there without having to author a webpage, the balance tipped (at least for business-motivated web content).

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nottorp 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

No, google search has stopped being useful years before "AI".

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LunaSea 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Is that why it kept it's market share and usage numbers?

	▲	pixl97 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Business momentum goes a long way, especially with Google being near monopoly status in their advertising. If you're flying at 50,000 feet and the engines fall off the plane it may be a long time before you the customer feel the impact. We can only guess Google is in a panic trying to figure out how they'll make their numbers next quarter and looking for something else to enshittify to increase profits in the meantime.

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mapontosevenths 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It was still useful to advertisers and publishers.

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sixtyj 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

- Build FAQ section (LLM can help write a lot of it, if you let it load the content of your site) - Write news on your site (LLM can help you to find ideas what to write about)

There are other networks as well: X, Meta, YouTube, LinkedIn, Amazon ads. It depends what’s your target group. But all networks have targeting tools so you can test them with minimum budget just to see what works and what doesn’t.

For sure, you have some personalized landing pages with CTA (Posthog script included so you can see what works).

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agentifysh 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

good riddance seriously i used to pay like $1~2 a click back in 2010s and remember feeling like a total scam. no way of knowing if those clicks were bots and any campaigns would always have inflation somehow even long tail words that shouldn't.

AI should equal the playing field and promote businesses based on merit and capacity not how much they can spend.

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Banditoz 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I will say I have no experience in the ad space, but surely the SEO/ad companies will figure out how to game LLMs to make their sites more likely to be picked up by it, no? Or OpenAI would just directly sell ads themselves.

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trey-jones 11 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes - we're in what I like to call the Socialist Phase of AI (user acquisition). We were once in this phase with Google. Eventually we'll move into the as-yet-unnamed-by-me phase that Google (and search in General, also the internet) have been in for quite some time, where they try and squeeze out all the money that they put in during the Socialist Phase.

	▲	jaggederest 11 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The classic pairing is explore/exploit - where you allocate resources towards serendipity in the former, and lock down into only doing the profitable thing in the second.
	▲	simpsond 11 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Value creation phase vs extraction phase.
	▲	delfinom 11 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I like to call this the candyvan phase.
	▲	cheschire 11 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Capitalist?

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eterm 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

For now.

I give it maybe 12-18 months before AI results are polluted by advertising.

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nospice 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't even think this golden age actually exists today. Aask Google AI mode for the best product in some category - say, the best kitchen range - and it cites... a bunch of spammy "review" websites and a YouTube video.

If you're shopping around, an LLM you control can work for stuff like summarizing customer reviews or compiling a list of products with specific features (if you don't mind them being randomly wrong). But for general shopping advice / "plan my vacation" kind of queries, it's already firmly in the land of SEO-garbage-in-SEO-garbage-out.

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djmips 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

exactly, enjoy the Golden age people, like the Internet had once...

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hylaride 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I give it maybe 12-18 months before AI results are polluted by advertising.

Have you been on amazon lately? We're already there. :-/

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nacozarina 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

they won't be in a separate panel you can ignore, either

the product promotion text will be integrated into the responses

'your prompt is insightful and refreshing. reminds me of the refreshing taste of organic coconut-cinnamon water. here's a QR code coupon for $1 off a 48-ct pack you can use at your local HoleFoods.'

	▲	ndriscoll 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		More like "Fantastic! It's great that you care about what you should feed your children. A bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch is a great way to start your kids' day with the energy they need, and it's something they're sure to love! It's also fortified with vitamins to give them the nutrition they need! If you don't have any, I can start a DoorDash order right now." Or "It's great that you want to find a way to earn some extra money for holiday presents for your family when you don't have anything left over after paying your bills. You're so thoughtful. You're an avid sports fan, so you've got the knowledge to have an edge in sports betting. DraftKings has a $10 credit when you bet your first $15 on tomorrow's game. You're automatically a winner!" One mustn't forget that propagandists are frequently just straight malicious.

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mtoner23 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I would be that Openai and Google will find a way to boost the embedded ad in the llm result to you based on an auction on how valuable you and your query are

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andrewmcwatters 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]