Monday, October 1, 2012

Amazon Allows Kindle Fire Users to Pay to Block Ads



This is a very interesting development; pay an extra $15 an Amazon will turn off any ads that appear on the new  Kindle Fire tablet. Yes, the firm is bowing to criticism but I wonder how many people care? Personally, I think it’s worth a small investment to eliminate the ads (I would do it on my iPhone or computer in a heartbeat).  And as a paid subscriber to the New York Times, I feel the same option should be present.
Although I am an admirer of Google (and someone who runs AdWords campaigns for clients), I always found it a little creepy that I am being marketed too based on the places I visit online, emails I receive or comments I post (which is why I set my computer to delete all cookies after my browser is closed and I delete cookies manually from my cell daily). Companies like Facebook plan on making a living by “personally marketing” to you but does anyone feel that’s an advantage or appreciate this service?  I know what I want, I know what I like and if I need advice, I will seek it out. I do not want to be followed all over the web.  I would pay a lifetime fee to eliminate all ads that appear on my mobile or computer. How does anyone else feel?

1 comment:

  1. John - i agree with you. We live in an "ad world" and it is really becoming a luxury to be able to escape it. I wish we could have more options available to get rid of them.

    A while ago, I also felt very much the same about "personalized marketing" BUT i now have a fairly different view on the subject. It seems like "personalized Marketing" actually works well with me because I realize I now click on ads much more often that what I used to do. And sometimes those ads have actually been quite helpful to me: for example, i was recently able to find a specialized Insurance company and tax accounting firm thanks to some ads that were targeted to me. So instead of viewing some uninteresting ads, i now view more interesting ads. This is a positive! (even if it remains quite scary...)

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