this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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When is an ad an advertisement and not a recommendation? Microsoft clearly likes to use the term recommendation for what others may see as an advertisement.

There are recommendations in the Start menu, Settings app, Lock screen, File Explorer, Get Help app, and other areas of the operating system already. These are often not that useful. App recommendations in the Start menu are limited to Microsoft Store apps.

Now, Microsoft is testing recommendations in the Microsoft Store app. If you never use the app, you won't be exposed to these. If you do, you may notice recommendations popping up when you try to use the built-in search.

First spotted by phantomofearth on X, two or three recommendations are shown whenever search is activated in the official Microsoft Store app.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (9 children)

I have used Windows 10 for years and recently switched to Windows 11 and I don't think I've ever seen an ad in my day to day OS use. I don't do the registry edits or turn off the telemetry stuff, either. I don't know what I'm doing differently but I'm not seeing these ads that apparently infected Windows.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

While I hate ads as much as the next person, I'm having trouble getting outraged by ads in an app store. "Recommendations" are kinda par for that course. Sure, it would be nice if those "recommendations" actually reflected stuff I was interested in and not just who paid Microsoft the most for ad placement. But, I also aggressively turn off telemetry (and actually don't use Windows at home). So, it's not like I expect useful recommendations anyway.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (3 children)

When is ad an advertisement and not a recommendation?

Always? That's why it's called ad instead of recommendation

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[–] [email protected] 156 points 4 months ago (2 children)

People need to stop complaining about the ads and they need to start complaining about the existence of a Windows monetization team.

Kill that team now while the revenue is small and the shareholders won’t throw a giant hissy fit.

As long as that team exists, they’re going to be putting ads in shit. Cut the head off the snake.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago (27 children)

Microsoft put themselves in this position when they started giving out Windows 10 for free. It was effective in bringing most of the market onto the new version, but it set an expectation which it now feels like they can't break, so they're also giving Windows 11 away. Now to offset that missing revenue, they have to do something to extract value from users.

I don't see how they could stop this without replacing it with something more exploitive.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Are we speaking metaphorically or literally? sharpens blades

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'd be curious at the percentage of windows users actually using the store app.

As for the context of these ads, the store would kind of make more sense than within your settings landing page, start menu, search dialog, browser nagware, solitaire app etc.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (4 children)

If I remember correctly some (mainly Microsoft made apps) are store only and some system apps are updated through it so probably a large part of users use it

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

This is a fair point, an I had considered this to be a case but the store is capable of automatically updating apps in the background. I believe this is the default behaviour but I could be mistaken.

There is also a chance a user may be directed to the store if they're required to buy the HEVC or install the AV1 system plugins.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Omg I’m so mad about this

lol jk I use Linux

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