[catfishjohn]

This is not about false advertising or any particular product. Its about cookies and mindless algorithms. The internet knows everything about everyone who uses it. When I say everything I mean right down to what you buy to eat and what brand of paper you buy to wipe your butt with. Its not personal or because the net cares its just what it does in pursuit of profit. I have been shopping for and researching binoculars. I learned about the huge amount of counterfeit products for sale online. Trying to learn more I did a search for "fake Zeiss binoculars." Soon after the ads for "Fake Zeiss binoculars up to 70% off started." The algorithm didn't know or care. I replied to the recent post on Pentax forum asking about a hard case for Pentax binoculars. My reply contained a reference to "Plano hard cases available at Walmart online." Soon after I got an e-mail advertising shopping at Walmart online. Co- incidence ? Maybe, or advertising algorithm doing its job. Try doing a search for "Roadkill for sale", or "Herpes for sale" and odds are you will find them at up to 70% off.

[BigMackCam]

Try doing a search for "Roadkill for sale", or "Herpes for sale" and odds are you will find them at up to 70% off.

Hmmm... I'm not in the market for either of those, but still... 70% off is 70% off. You can't beat that!

Seriously, though, I rarely if ever see any online advertising. I have uBlock Origin running in my Firefox browser on every device, so whilst I'm sure the ads - fake or otherwise - are being served up to me, I don't see them.

[Serkevan]

It's all about filtering out bad advertisers. Google certainly filters out illegal advertising, so it has the capability to filter and blacklist. The issue is, where does - and where should - it draw the line... Should it simply be illegal ads that are blocked, or those that are morally questionable too?

I decided years ago that such a question was too metaphysical for me. UBlock sidesteps it neatly doesn't it

[stevebrot]

What I find the most offensive is that Google is providing the means for an unscrupulous advertiser to insert a targeted ad which is patently a lie.

Blame the advertiser. Google/YouTube has no way of knowing whether the links go to helpful or accurate content. The ad could just as easily have come up here on PF.


Steve

[slartibartfast01]

Hmmm... I'm not in the market for either of those, but still... 70% off is 70% off. You can't beat that!

Seriously, though, I rarely if ever see any online advertising. I have uBlock Origin running in my Firefox browser on every device, so whilst I'm sure the ads - fake or otherwise - are being served up to me, I don't see them.

Same here. I tend to ignore all advertising in general and don't even watch in game advertising on my phone. I look away deliberately

[surfar]

What I find the most offensive is that Google is providing the means for an unscrupulous advertiser to insert a targeted ad which is patently a lie.

some sort of scam, Ive seen it for other brands too

[RobG]

This is not about false advertising or any particular product. Its about cookies and mindless algorithms.

I understand how the search on YouTube resulted in the fraudulent ad. The end result is false advertising created programmatically. I'm not sure if it's legal in any country to advertise something you can't sell, but it certainly is illegal in Australia.

Blame the advertiser. Google/YouTube has no way of knowing whether the links go to helpful or accurate content. The ad could just as easily have come up here on PF.

That was part of my point, because the ad came up in YouTube which is owned by Google. So Google is supplying the search data to a third party advertiser who is then programmatically creating an ad based on the data not on facts like actually being able to fulfill the claim made by the ad. Google is enabling the fraud by the advertiser, so they're not blameless. If it was a third party website, I'd actually be more forgiving than a website owned directly by Google. If an ad appeared on TV for a product which didn't exist, would the TV station be entirely blameless? It would probably have a contract which said that the advertiser was entirely responsible for the content. This is even more insidious because the fraudulent ad could claim to be selling anything that the user searched for, as opposed to a TV ad shotgun approach.

some sort of scam, Ive seen it for other brands too

You're right, it's clearly a scam. Sadly, a lot of people would click on the link thinking that the ad was genuine, and who knows what they may end up with - best case perhaps losing some money, worst case spyware, ransomware or some other malware.

[35mmfilmfan]

Some of the Ebay suggested items can be strange too, although presumably not illegal. For instance, I bought some Carbon-fibre bicycle handlebar tape recently, and was also presented with links to 'Vintage leather saddles'. I feel no need to purchase an item that someone else's sit-upon has already sat upon.

[ehrwien]

In the app for our local Craigslist ("ebay kleinanzeigen") there was an ad in between offers (but easily discernable as an ad) by one of the (if not the) largest tech stores here, stating that I could get the K-1 II including the 28-105 for a comparably good price, I don't remember exactly, let's say 1899€. So I clicked on the ad, it took me to the website of the tech store, but once it was fully loaded, there was no more mention of the lens, it was an offer for the body only, but the price was the same as was advertised for body+lens. I'm sure this is illegal to do in Germany, but what could I have possibly done about it? When I reopened the app where the ad appeared, the ad was no longer there.

Ads are the cancer of the internet, but at the same time they help pay for the services we want to use, so they are a necessary evil, but because many cross one or more acceptable lines (false advertising, visually distracting moving picture full page ads, blasting sound without me asking them to do so, making loading time of pages longer for this crap to download, taking processor time to power the animations, opening doors for malware... ) I'm not willing to accept all ads globally. If a service wants me to disable my adblocker to use it, I will think long and hard if using the service is worth it to me to put up with this crap. If they offer to pay for the service instead, it depends on the pricing. I'm not paying 5 bucks a month to click on two news articles in the time, for 10 different news sites. I'm not watching two 30 second ads on YouTube before being able to watch the clip that is shorter than those ads.

That being said, I've often considered donating to PF, but I've not yet done so. Considering the time spent on this site and the value it represents for me (putting aside all the money it cost me because of feeding my LBA... ) I think it's about damn time to do it

[gatorguy]

Ads are the cancer of the internet, but at the same time they help pay for the services we want to use, so they are a necessary evil...

That being said, I've often considered donating to PF, but I've not yet done so. Considering the time spent on this site and the value it represents for me (putting aside all the money it cost me because of feeding my LBA... ) I think it's about damn time to do it

Well?

IMO For the value regular visitors get from PentaxForums it's only fair they contribute a tiny bit to keeping these resources available.

I use an ad blocker myself and have for quite a while, but I don't hesitate to contribute both my subscription $ and my time here, as well as using the PF links to purchase from our trusted partners.
Do you buy from Adorama or B&H Photo? (Support PentaxForums!) - PentaxForums.com.

For the $100's (in truth probably a couple thousand) it has saved me in making the right lens and camera purchases with reviews from actual users, to the tips and tricks using what I have more efficiently, and adding in the money saved by purchasing used from the good members here selling in our marketplace the paltry Loyal Site Supporter cost of $59 in an absolute bargain.
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