Lately - and I bet you’ve noticed -, ads took control of most of our experiences. They’re in our websites, they’re in our televisions and radios, they’re in our feeds, they’re in our video-games. While advertising is a necessary thing, we’re seeing way too much of it. If only they were relevant, right?

We’ll see online ad usage growing and growing, as businesses realize how much cheaper it becomes to actually launch ad-supported products (the launch now, “business plan” later method). However, we must become much better at actually using advertising in a way that doesn’t bore people to death, and in relevant ways. Here are a few examples, off the top of my head:

• If I’m reading articles on a blog about design, I want the ads present to be relevant to the content I’m looking at - this gets me at least some value out of the real estate the ads are taking from me. Current solutions are “okay”, not “good” when it comes to micro-content relevancy.
• If I’m playing a video-game, I can easily tolerate in-game ads if they’re unobtrusive (and, dare I say it, help the ambience - Oh please, be creative, you know what I mean). And obviously, gamers are always more interested in ads about other games, or accessories, not necessarily music bands or IT solutions.
• If I’m watching TV, I want the ads to be relevant to my interests - heck, give me ads on design and user experience and I’ll be happy to see a few. I may be pushing it a little with this one, but with IPTV, we’ll be real close to real solutions to this problem very soon. Right, Google?

All these examples mean to convey one very simple idea: we’ve learned to cope with ads, but the fact is, they’re still a burden on our everyday experiences. The whole advertising world would be much better off if ads were actually delivered in ways people would like, not despise.