2026-06-21 08:05 UTC
Tim Berners-Lee at a book event. I like his framing of how online advertising pre-Facebook dominance was actually a good thing for the web. Eg it allowed me to employ >20 people in my blogging business, & it wasn’t invading anyone’s privacy.
“In the beginning, he said “it wasn’t all bad”, describing how bloggers could have adverts on the sides of their posts and could make some earnings from their work. This was before the advent of targeted ads and marketing, he said.”
https://www.thejournal.ie/inventor-of-the-internet-tim-berners-lee-7076851-Jun2026/
Replies (1)
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@ricmac@mastodon.social 2026-06-21 08:12
The sponsorship model is theoretically still a great business model for blogs: companies benefit from reaching a specific audience (eg dev tools sponsoring on a tech blog), and having their brand viewed favorably next to the host (especially if the blog is known for its quality). Of course, that only works if there is a functional referral ecosystem from search engines and social media…and that ecosystem was trashed by social media and now AI overviews is all but killing it off forever.