> As much as it sucks, YouTube has the same clause and it makes a lot of sense for companies who monetize on ads.
I wonder why we couldn't just get something like: "If you create a third party UI, you must include the following ad web component in the interface: https://github.com/... and the supporting mechanisms for that (user ID/cookies/whatever)"
But instead, many companies attempt to disallow third party clients and any reverse engineering in general, whereas the few that do allow it don't think about the possibility of monetization in third party clients (legally enforced), or just have to deal with such configurations not being supported.
And if the current ad technology doesn't work that way, then what prevent us from making it work that way? Why should the party that displays an ad always be the same one that's benefiting from it financially? Why couldn't I have some third party UI for a popular site that solves my personal gripes with the UI, while still showing ads on the behalf of that company that owns the original platform, so I don't get my socks sued off of me?
The biggest reason is that there's value in owning the user experience. Before streaming video took over, cable providers tried to put TiVo out of business by offering their own (crappier) DVR products and gating TiVo and DIY products like MythTV behind a flaky, poorly-supported product called CableCARD.
If you own the user experience, you can push users into _your_ most profitable offerings. And it works shockingly well.
I wonder why we couldn't just get something like: "If you create a third party UI, you must include the following ad web component in the interface: https://github.com/... and the supporting mechanisms for that (user ID/cookies/whatever)"
But instead, many companies attempt to disallow third party clients and any reverse engineering in general, whereas the few that do allow it don't think about the possibility of monetization in third party clients (legally enforced), or just have to deal with such configurations not being supported.
And if the current ad technology doesn't work that way, then what prevent us from making it work that way? Why should the party that displays an ad always be the same one that's benefiting from it financially? Why couldn't I have some third party UI for a popular site that solves my personal gripes with the UI, while still showing ads on the behalf of that company that owns the original platform, so I don't get my socks sued off of me?