What makes something an ‘ad’ on Google TV?

Ben Schoon | Oct 13 2024 - 11:30 am PT

Ads are a huge part of, well, everything online in 2024. That includes Google TV, but the company’s living room experience also splits hairs on what could be considered an “ad.” So, what makes something an ad?

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Google TV is a platform full of content recommendations, there whether you want them or not. You’ll see recommendations for TV shows, movies, and more through the entire “For You” tab. There are really a couple of main ways to look at this.

On the one hand, you can look at these recommendations as helpful ways of surfacing content, especially since Google TV can help you find where to watch this content, and as many of the recommendations are tailored to you personally. On the other hand, you can just view everything as an ad of some kind, which can easily feel overwhelming.

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Personally, I’ve felt since the beginning of Google TV that there’s a clear split between ads and recommendations. Ads are labeled, sponsored content that usually appears up in the “Featured” slider, nowadays often with an autoplay video attached like the one going around this week for Abbot Elementary.

Over time, though, the game has changed a fair bit. Google TV has since adopted ads for things that are not content, including chicken tenders and tacos. Obviously, anything like that is clearly an ad, but when it’s thrown into the same box as content that’s supposed to be a recommendation, it makes that entire box feel like it’s just full of ads.

By definition, an ad is “a notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event.” According to that, everything that’s not a personalized recommendation on Google TV’s homescreen can be considered an ad, and with more and more sponsored content that’s not actual content, it just feels like Google TV is showing more and more ads, and less that’s “for you.”

What do you think?

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Top comment by Tiuri Elvander

Liked by 10 people

It is naive to think that "personalised suggestions" are not ads. The device knows which services I subscribe to, yet it continues to 'suggest' shows from other services as well as suggestions that I install the apps for those other services. They are very clearly ads, like almost the entire UI. The recommendations are also clearly ads.

The contrast between the old chromecasts and chromecasts with Google TV is like night and day.

It is very easy to prove that Google considers these suggestions and recommendations ads. Think of this new Home control panel, everyone wants it but it is NOT available when using the apps-only mode. Why? Because Google uses it to pressure everyone to switch to the regular interface mode so everyone is forced to look at these suggestions and recommendations. If these recommendations and suggestions weren´t ads, Google wouldn´t care and would make the Home control panel available in app-only mode as well.

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