Amazon is considering shoving ads into Alexa+ conversations
- Thread starter JournalBot
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Voice assistants like Alexa are only marginally useful, at best. Adding ads, and creepy, invasive monitoring that goes along with ads, doesn't make them any more useful.
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Alternate Headline:
"Alexa users get what they deserve, without having to ask for it!"
(I await your down votes !)
Edit: Added last line
"Alexa users get what they deserve, without having to ask for it!"
(I await your down votes !)
Edit: Added last line
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39
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"Hear me out, let's take this product people already actively dislike... and make it worse."
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"See they hate it, but don't hate it enough to stop using it. May as well squeeze some money out of them."
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Introducing ads will ensure that Alexa+ becomes a financial failure. It is a very dunderheaded idea. Businesses need to look to other ways of making profit. For starters: ensuring quality in their products and good customer service.
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I sold my Echo Show as as every update would re-enable to option to show "Sponsored Content", and repalced it with an Echo Dot, which i thought would be add proof.
How naive I was.....
How naive I was.....
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Amazon recently reported Q2 earnings numbers with a net income of over $18billion, up nearly $5billion from Q2 last year (https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-rel.../Amazon-com-Announces-Second-Quarter-Results/)
but, line must go up. So of course they want to put ads in an assistant to try and make it profitable in isolation, rather than consider it an operating expense and just provide the feature in a customer-friendly way (without ads).
but, line must go up. So of course they want to put ads in an assistant to try and make it profitable in isolation, rather than consider it an operating expense and just provide the feature in a customer-friendly way (without ads).
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58
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Agreed. I, for one, will continue to not use any of these "features" from any provider.
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Good customer service is never coming back until two things happen:
1. Companies start paying customer service reps enough to make them care about providing good service
2. Customers actually stop giving companies money over bad customer service
As it is, plenty of people will complain about bad customer service, but they'll still patronize those businesses, which means there's zero incentive for those companies to change anything. And thanks to most companies realizing that bad CS basically doesn't impact the bottom line, they'll continue to staff their CS departments with minimum wage drones who don't give a hoot about servicing customers.
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48
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Sure seems like a high price to pay for something most people have only ever used as a glorified kitchen timer
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These people are mostly investors, shareholders and private equity firms. I would say something more like toxic or poisonous rather than insufferable. Something that needs to be cured
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I actually didn't need another reason to never use an Alexa enabled product again. I thought my Google stuff was bad enough but Amazon doubles down on it.
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I haven't looked into it any further but I listened to a YT vid this morning that claims Amazon now makes more money through advertising than it does from its storefront. If true, that it absolutely crazy.
EDIT:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewbWx_DQxAk
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¿Why wont Amazon make a JV with a company that can make Alexa successfull and call it a day?. Do an Acquhire, then a reverse merger, and then divest that stuff.
In this way, enough ties will remain to the mothership to bring profits from services needed to run aleza + purchases AND profits from the divested company for years to come
In this way, enough ties will remain to the mothership to bring profits from services needed to run aleza + purchases AND profits from the divested company for years to come
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A long while ago, the clud division surpassed the storefront. Other divisions were bound to do it too, eventually. Is not crazy at all.
GM, Ford and many other automakers make more money out of financial services than from selling cars.
Ditto for IBM pre-PC and during early PC years.
Again, not crazy at all.
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The best I can tell people is to switch to Home assistant. It will be more work and less user-friendly, but for a connected house it will be a lot better.
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This is nothing new. Back in the day the accountants at GE realized that they could make more money lending funds to customers to help build things like steel mills than they could from actually selling a customer a new steel mill.
(OTOH I know how GE built steel mills, so I'm not surprised)
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I did the XKCD comic to my brother, though I ordered a gross of toner cartridges he could use in his printer. He was NOT amused. But he did learn the value of audio opsec for the home.
What kills me is that he's a web developer for a company that handles donations for philanthropic groups and should have known better. He literally didn't know that anyone could use Alexa if they didn't add the family only restriction.
Sad part? They still use the fucking thing. But it's been (allegedly) nerfed to respond only to my sister-in-law's voice, who seems to be why they still have it.
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Not that they will never sneak in, but it is part of why I use Apple TVs and home pod minis...
Apple doesn't do ads within them (now an APP within it, that is up to the App developer). Though, I guess on the home screen sometimes seeing an AppleTV show autoplaying a trailer in the background if you hover over the TV app could count as an ad.
I do use Siri a lot. 98% for home automation stuff or playing music. But if Apple added in Ads or eroded privacy the way Amazon and Google have...out the window. Stranded tech. Oh well.
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Lol. Similar story with my ex-brother-in-law.
Siri is a lot more locked down by default and some behavior cannot be unlocked. For instance, security automation cannot be unlocked/opened without verifying on an iPhone/iPad, even with voice matching security in place. I can close the garage door just by asking loud enough. I have to have my phone in hand and faceID match or have the phone unlocked to open the garage door. IIRC, voice authentication is on by default for Home pods, though you can turn that off (but again, security devices/automations have to be device/face verified.)
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AlaskanDruid
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Much to the surprise of absolutely nobody, the criminal organization continues to farm Ls.
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Based on my experiences trying to find legit items on Amazon within the masses of knockoffs, I am not surprised. These days, most of my amazon purchases are the rare MP3 album (the only place I found where I can still legally get the actual file without an Apple device) or used stuff (DVDs, Games, or books) from places like Goodwill.
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Am I crazy or wasn't Alexa+ being talked about as a paid for, "premium" version of Alex. And they're already talking about introducing ads to it?
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Saw a chart the other day showing that amazon spends far more than their rivals on AI, and yet they have basically nothing to show for it other than a still janky money losing voice assistant. I find immense joy in their utter failure
Edit: Oh someone linked the video above on the enshitification of amazon that shows that chart on AI spending
Edit: Oh someone linked the video above on the enshitification of amazon that shows that chart on AI spending
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This is the primary reason I haven't purchased a new vehicle in a while. I'm not going to give money to companies that continue producing cars with tons of features I don't want and often limited or no ability to turn those features off permanently without bricking the vehicle.
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