The Off Topic Topic

[Admiral Yi]

That data could be a product that you sell (not just to your own adtech wing) - alternately you could see it as part of individual digital identities with control over how and with whom data is shared.

That's what they're doing right now.  That's what the advertising part of the business does.

[Sheilbh]

Which bit? There's multiple bits of their advertising business. But I don't think any of it is an arms length sale that is available to other parties.

One (the bit that generates most revenue) is advertising on Google platforms. So selling keywords on search or Gmail targeted to a user. Other advertising companies cannot buy space on Google's suite or products like search or Gmail. They also can't access the data that build it - so if you want to target x keyword and y location that must be done through Google. That is actually how Google make most of their money is selling advertising on their products. I think that bit of the business could absolutely survive being separated from the adtech business.

The other bit is the wider adtech bit which also uses data generated from Google's products like search. So this is "open". Google operate a platform that publishers can use to sell their inventory. It is based on audience data (interests, locations) that Google acquires that info in part from search and Gmail etc. But also from the cookies and other technology on the websites using their platform. Generally speaking - if you want to sell your inventory through Google's platform then you need to use that technology and they'll also harvest the data about your users (which they can mix with their own data) and your content (which they also scrape for search and have used to build their LLMs). There's a few other players but the biggest, aside from Google, are ultimately Amazon and Microsoft - I think Facebook are less relevant now. Generally speaking publishers and other websites will only load one or there'll be a hierarchy because this makes pages slow.

But if you want to sell to multiple possible buyers then you'll connect to ad exchanges and probably have several. The platform for selling needs to load - the ad exchanges all run an auction and only the winning bid loads so it doesn't really impact the page to have several running. Google have one of those too and the EU has said they are self-preferencing it. But the ad exchange - as it sounds - is also where Google is basically auctioning space to advertisers and agencies who will have their campaigns there. So they're sort of on both sides of the transaction and running the auction.

That adtech business I think needs splitting up full stop. But both their demand platform and their ad exchange could survive without search (or each other).

And just to go back to the fact that Google have been using their crawling for search for building their LLMs, the main product they've rolled out with that so far is generative search. So as a user searches for information in Google they're no longer directed to possible links but will be able to get the "answer" on Google's platform. Which means that over time people don't go to the links so even that adtech side of their business becomes less relevant where there are other parties who get a cut (even with Google's self-preferencing) and instead they can directly sell advertising on their AI generated summary of your content. They have started to shift on this and will end up with an AI/search option. But their initial position was if you want your website to be discoverable on Google then they will scrape it which can be used for training their AI. I think their current position is they won't scrape content for AI training if it is behind a paywall (this is not how copyright works). If you're open web - BBC, Daily Mail, Guardian - then your content is fair game (obviously one of those is funded by a tax so less of an issue).

The other layer to this is browsers which is the walled garden issue. There's a big fight in the regulatory world between privacy and competition - this has really played out in the UK. Google's long-standing commitment was that they were going to end third party cookies - which allow other parties to build their own audiences that can then be sold through Google's platform for publishers. That's really good from a privacy perspective and has been pushed by the UK privacy regulator. The solution Google came up with was that instead a user's privacy settings would be set at a browser level - and they've got roughly 65-70% of the browser market. Which causes issues from a competition perspective - so the UK competition regulator launched an investigation and basically blocked this. Google have recently pulled their plans to deprecate third party cookies on Chrome. Third party cookies are still probably doomed - they're the bit of the internet the public don't like. But they are also the bit that lets websites use alternatives to Google and Apple especially as the main browser gateways.

[garbon]

Ugh, their AI summaries are annoying. No I don't want whatever random crap you compiled and no I don't appreciate having to scroll further to get to actual websites.

[Josquius]

Yeah that's pretty wacky.

Hopefully when they take it to the shop to fix it, they can diagnose the cause as well. Do update us please

Both had breakdown insurance men out.
Aunts old car - simple drained battery. Recharge it the usual way and it's working fine.

Dad's trendy new hydunai - he eventually got it working that day. Ish. Limped home with no display on the dash, not even his speed.
Breakdown assist guy had no idea at all. Suggested draining the battery as a possible fix - it went flat very quick but no dice.
He took it back to the garage where he got it and they've never seen anything like it and have given no word on what is going on.

It does look like a hyper  localised EMP blast.

[grumbler]

[Razgovory]

[Admiral Yi]

I learned a new word tonight.  In Hawaii a half Asian, half white (like me) is called a hapa-haole.  This I knew.  A one quarter asian is called a hapa-hapa.

[Josquius]

Bottom half or top half?

[Grey Fox]

My basement flooded today, like most on the north shore of Montreal. Got to about 5 inches high on the entire floor.  My neighbor lent me his pump and all the water was gone in 3 hours. I'll have to do a lot of cleaning and throw some stuff out but not too bad all considering.

My in-laws had 3 feet of water in their basement.

I'm suppose to travel on Monday for a week. My gf wants to cancel, I'm on the fence.

What would you do Languish?

[Jacob]

Where are you travelling to and for what reason? And what kind of time do you have available when you come home?

[crazy canuck]

My basement flooded today, like most on the north shore of Montreal. Got to about 5 inches high on the entire floor.  My neighbor lent me his pump and all the water was gone in 3 hours. I'll have to do a lot of cleaning and throw some stuff out but not too bad all considering.

My in-laws had 3 feet of water in their basement.

I'm suppose to travel on Monday for a week. My gf wants to cancel, I'm on the fence.

What would you do Languish?

Contact your insurer asap, they will engage the contractor who will do the restoration work.  Your GF just needs to be there to let them in.  The are probably going to ask you to leave while they work anyway.

[Josquius]

I'd call my dad. Maybe not an option from Canada.

[Norgy]

My basement flooded today, like most on the north shore of Montreal. Got to about 5 inches high on the entire floor.  My neighbor lent me his pump and all the water was gone in 3 hours. I'll have to do a lot of cleaning and throw some stuff out but not too bad all considering.

My in-laws had 3 feet of water in their basement.

I'm suppose to travel on Monday for a week. My gf wants to cancel, I'm on the fence.

What would you do Languish?

Contact your insurer asap, they will engage the contractor who will do the restoration work.  Your GF just needs to be there to let them in.  The are probably going to ask you to leave while they work anyway.

This.

[Grey Fox]

Where are you travelling to and for what reason? And what kind of time do you have available when you come home?

On vacation. 😆

@Josq Sadly, my dad passed away in 2020.

The morning assessment is a better situation, I'll have to replace a carpet and some bottom walls. One of the advantages of having a mostly unfinished basement.

My insurer is pretty busy at the moment. Everyone I know was flooded.

[crazy canuck]

Have you notified your insurer?  If not do it right away.  If you don't your coverage could be void.