Rachel Tang

English 10

27 September 2020

Mr. Barazzuol

Communication Timeline

The timeline shown below shows the evolution of online advertisement. Online advertisement is relevant to communication because it is a big source of promoting a business, big or small, to potential customers that may be interested. Advertising online can help reach out to media consumers all around the globe that more likely than not would have not know of such small business exists without the help of online advertisements. It had been not many years since the world wide web first launched when the first ever banner ad popped for everyone to see, luring their curiosity to click the pop up. Turns out it was a campaign ad for AT&T, what is now known as a type of telephone service. Three years later, in 1997, Ethan Zuckerman invented pop-up ads as a way to catch the attention of users online. Thankfully the feature was deemed a nuisance and adblocker specifically for pop-ups were invented the same year to counter the eyesore. Google was launched September 4, 1998, although there were other search engines that had existed before Google, it really skyrocketed. A God send to all, adblocker programs that would stop all intrusive ads were created in 2002. AdBlock, a widely known adblocker from the beginning, had been launched. Thus started the fierce battle between how many advertisements an publisher could get on their article and ad blocking. In 2004, Facebook was created, following not long after came Youtube that launched in 2005. Youtube begun adding ads to their website a year later in 2006. Fun fact: Youtube started as a dating site. Youtube is known for having a… unique algorithm recently. Coming at the same year were personalized ads, Youtubes algorithm, apart from other things, recommends the views videos they may like from looking at previous videos they have watched or liked. That is what personalized ads are, the platform system tracks things media consumers have interacted with and will present them with similar ads. Facebook different from Youtube, less of a video sharing platform and more social platform like modern social media (ex. Instagram), the user can like, comment, and share on both sites but they are different format. On Facebook users can directly engage with ads that come up on their timeline page, which it is what the latest event on the timeline. Since 2008 there have been many more improvements and much more progress. Ads are slowly surpassing the author’s adblock and everyday they stay hoping they will not get the infamous twelve minute ad on Youtube, perhaps Youtube’s system is getting too good.