Tech people really have no idea how horrific the internet has become for normal people. The ad load is off the deep end on all web-based media platforms! They don't actually hate their readers. But you could be convinced. It hurts to watch if you usually use blockers:

The web property in question, like all other text-based online media businesses, has been in terminal decline since the mid-2010 era. It was more popular in January 2006! Why? Read my essay. It's the same reason Apple took a hit on music revenue in 2014 for the first time ever.

You can think of "Kotaku" as an independent business. That's fair. But it's more revealing to think of them as a subsidiary of Google Inc! In this lens, Kotaku's ad load is just a price signal about end-user value on the Open Web vs. on Closed Platforms. They spam you because your attention just isn't worth that much!

Kotaku's tagline is "Gaming Reviews". Those are the first 2 words after their name when you search for them on google. And you can see that Google Search interest for that topic is at 44% of its all time high. On YouTube search, the same term is at 69% of its all time high!

The economics of the mobile internet are different. Walled gardens dominate. Google's ad monopoly can't see into them. And so Google was forced to funnel users into its own Closed Ecosystem. And now it's turning up the screws there too. Pay more...or else:

Content lifted from @Asmongold's video here. Of course, Twitter, once a product of the Open Web, has now modernized under new management in pursuit of cash flows and will not be so kind to an external link. You can't fight economics.

Lack of growth is so tragic. It leads to painful outcomes for everyone. It just so happens that one way this manifests is when a monopoly suddenly faces new challengers. The competition itself can force them to over-monetize & extract all remaining value from their products.

A poem for the fallen

They don’t hate their users…it just looks that way because their own business would fail if they acted any other way. They do hate the changing winds of technology that force them to act this way, & they resent the people who can make things without having to abuse users.

Interest in online music piracy was ~4.25x greater in January 2004 than it is today. Over 20 years ago!! The reason & the timeline is the same as everything else in this thread & in my essay. The internet of your childhood is alien to the new generation.

3% of you made it to the end of the video nearly 10% made it through 1m13s of ads (i count 26 ads you saw in that brief time, or 0.35 ads per second) brave souls the insurance salesmen & the talking fox ad appreciate your service

Currently on the frontpage of HN, a marvelous parody of this all in action. Click about and see:

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The internet you grew up with is already over. It has been for a decade now. The new world is not necessarily better…