Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
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I replied to Jeff over on mastodon as well, but, with Meta, why do they need to profile to provide ads? They could easily base the ads on the content on the current page being served, not what I have previously seen…
That would probably be more accurate than the ‘profiled’ advertising I get. Currently, YouTube is serving me up L’Oréal Professional and hygiene pads, when I watch GTA 5 racing videos… Being a 50 something male, I would say that their profiling is totally wrong!
6 months ago, it was anti-ageing cream and baby vaccines. If this is supposed to be targeted, who the heck do they think I am?
The best ‘targeted advertising I’ve seen is here on TWiT, because it is personally selected by @leo and the team to relate to the sort of people that listen to the podcasts, I’ve bought more based on his recommendations over the years than through all other advertising channels put together.
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Yeah i’ve made purchases from TWiT advertisers over the years, too. I was a fan before I was given the opportunity to be a host.
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I agree with you regarding the relevancy of TWiT ads. I am a Club TWiT member and can view TWiT shows without the ads; however, I sometimes go thru the shows and check out the ads since they are, more often than not, relevant to me.
As for “targeted” ads on other platforms and programs, I do not find the ads very relevant and more annoying than anything.
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I’m still paying for stupidly expensive TV… long story. I ACTIVELY make fun of many advertisements because they’re just so stupid or else they assume I am. For example, at least here in Canada, a major seller of connected exercise equipment, has this ad that really loudly claims “92% of those who purchase the connected service (whatever it’s called) are still customers a year later.” They’re making a false equivalence with the contract and the use of the service. Since the deal is, you get one month free when you sign a year contract, OF COURSE they’re still members one year later, they still have another month of service. They want you to believe people love paying for the service, when in fact it’s much like any other gym contract… most people stop using it fairly early on and just never get around to cancelling their service because they make that so darned difficult.
Many ads use this same kind of misleading sales technique. What they may say may actually be truthful, just not relevant in the way they hope you take it.
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@Leo one point, about the Google Fonts, since the spring of last year (2022) it is an offence under the GDPR to link to Google Fonts, if you are going to use them, you have to host them locally. Because Google performs tracking on the linked fonts, you cannot use the fonts when showing a page to a user, unless they have specifically opted into using allowing 3rd party cookies from Google.
This is why the cookie banners disappeared after 2018 and were replaced by selection dialogs, where you can reject all, select all or select only those you want. (Any site still showing the simple cookie banner is no longer compliant, if they are using any 3rd party cookies - for example, my employer’s website uses a simple cookie banner, stating we don’t use any 3rd party cookies and all cookies we do use are to allow for the navigation of the site; as that is all we do and it is a necessary cookie, that is legal).
Here are the simplified rules:
- cookies necessary to the use of the site (navigation, login status) are allowed & can be permanently activated.
- A cookie to remember the user’s cookie options also falls under the necessary category, so you don’t have to ask them every time they visit the site.
- first party cookies for metrics, tracking and profiling are not necessary & the user has to opt-in to using them, before you can deploy them.
- third party cookies are not necessary & the user has to opt-in to using them, before you can deploy them.
- “legitimate interest” is just a marketing term to try and get people to accept those cookies.
- rejecting all cookies cannot be more complicated than accepting all cookies.
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Main takeaway from this episode - should’ve invested in corn futures! 
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Re: Boxing.
At the 33 ish minute mark there was a discussion about boxing and Glenn says his dad used to be a big fan of boxing, but gave it up. Recently listened to an episode of Hardcore History (Addendum) where they discuss if modern boxers could take on old-timers, and the general consensus was no; boxers 40, 50, 60 years ago boxed all the time, and it was about technique and style; these days, fighters only fight a couple times a year, and they depend on brute strength and power to win. Modern boxing is much more brutish than of old.
I like boxing as much as any sportsball, which is to say not at all, but it was an interesting discussion, considering that in most sports, players are getting better.
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