I know this is a thing that has been tried a few times before and all failed... but is anyone currently trying the monthly subscription model that gets dolled out in micro-payments to whatever you interact with, across the internet? Yes it would require trackers, but not predatory ones like ads.
Imagine all the ads on the websites you visit showing a "hey! Pay $5/mo to hide ads forever on the sites you visit". The existing tracker used for ads checks if you're a paying member, and doesn't load any advertisements. Instead maybe one shows up with "Thanks for your contribution!" or whatevs.
And at the end of the month your $5 gets equally distributed to every supported site you visited. And a lil' goes to the service itself for logistics and admin, etc.
This way you don't have 100 subscriptions, you don't get ads, and the sites you like get paid.
Extend this to apps - one login gets you ad-free access to a bunch of apps and services that otherwise would be ad supported.
Anyway. I'm sure there would be logistical nightmare, but if one could get the big advertisers on-board (hahaha I know I know) then maybe we could have a much nicer, less invasive experience on the web 🤷
@TetroniMike Brave kinda went in that direction, so did some of the Web Monetization stuff a while ago. I think the crypto influence kinda poisoned the efforts though. I think it'd be cool to have something like this. More likely that Google would add something proprietary for it in their browser IMO.
@TetroniMike I think their management would need to get their head out of the AI industry's ass before they start making actual changes like this, but we can still dream :P
@mauve oh def, this is a pie-in-the-sky dream that I don't expect to happen, ads are a ridiculous industry that will not be upset without massive, expensive pushback.
@mauve honestly if Google implemented this for Google Ads which are absolutely everywhere they'd gain back a massive amount of my trust... I wouldn't go back to being all-in on Google like I was 10ish years ago, not even close, but I'd super respect them for this.