But it remains a business, which exists by selling its users to its advertisers. Most on the net have yet to grasp that when they are on free sites – Facebook and Twitter as well as Google – they are not citizens enjoying a public service or customers whose wishes must always come first. They are the product whose presence the site owners sell to the real customers in advertising.
Exactly like your column in The Observer then?
Which, er, carries Google Ads?
1 response so far ↓
1 john b // Nov 1, 2010 at 2:54 am
Except that GMG’s main aim (as written into the Scott Trust’s constitution) is to continue producing a liberal daily newspaper – the ads are a necessary evil in order to allow the company to keep doing that, not the primary purpose of the company’s existence.
Leave a Comment