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0 pointsethbr111mo ago0 comments

This is the biggest argument in favor of subscription-based funding models for search I've heard. (Kagi et al.)

Ad-sponsored models are going to be dead as soon as people realize they can't trust output.

And because the entire benefit to LLM search is the convenience of removing a human-in-the-loop step (scanning the search results), there won't be a clear insertion/distinction point for ads without poisoning the entire output.

0 comments

Kerrick11mo ago

You'd hope so, but it's still an uphill battle to get people to only work with financial advisors who have a fiduciary duty to their client, rather than working with advisors who get kickbacks.

ethbr1OP11mo ago

Granted, most markets are bifurcated.

Those who can afford, buy unbiased.

Those who cannot, accept biased free services.

I suppose that's Google's hope for how future search turns out.

xorcist11mo ago

There is no exclusive-or between business models, there is an inclusive-or.

Over time subscription models will converge to subscription with advertisements. Like newspapers did.

wavemode11mo ago

And streaming services. People really thought streaming would be the end of TV commercials. Ha!

yellowapple11mo ago

It absolutely has been for me. It'll be a cold day in Hell before I pay money for something that's ad-supported. It's why I won't touch Hulu with a 10-foot pole, it's one of many reasons why I will always pirate Windows, and it's why I laugh at cable Internet salesmen when they sing their praises for bundling in TV.

Ads xor payment, or else you can fuck all the way off.

kbutler11mo ago

Define ad infinitum

What you don't get with pay TV

  Originally for cable, but then you got ads with cable. 
  Then for streaming, but then you got ads with streaming. 
  Physical DVDs? Ads. 
  Paid Roku device? Ads. 
  Paid windows installation? Ads.

Available eyeballs will be sold.

handfuloflight11mo ago

What if the advertiser's product or service is objectively (according to either a prompt defined by the user or by the UI operator, transparently provided) the answer to the query?

crabmusket11mo ago

Then the response will also contain ads for things that are not the answer to the query. This is how search engines currently behave.

Example from my work. Many of our customers will search for our company name in order to find the login page. I've watched them do this over screen share.

When they do that, the top search result is an ad slot. The second search result is our login page.

We buy ads against out own company name so that we can be the ad slot as well as the first result. Otherwise a competitor who buys ads against our company name could be the top slot.

SoftTalker11mo ago

Or a phisher could buy the ad slot or game the search results to publish a fake login page to phish credentials. This is why 2FA is not really optional anymore for anything of value.

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