No, adverts are almost always irrelevant for almost everybody. They are a necessary (and sometimes unnecessary) evil. Most of us don't look for something to buy all the time. When I read my mail or a blog or whatever, that huge burger and coke ad right in the middle of the screen is an irrelevant distraction.
When I have to watch that very same 30 second Hoodie Footie Pajamagram - the perfect way to snuggle up - segment before each and every 3m news video on CNBC it's a torture for my brain.
I wish more sites gave me a reasonable way to buy myself freedom from that "highly relevant" bloat.
[Edit] As a service provider, I appreciate the convenient excuse you provide for torturing my users ;-)
I think Google's billions in revenue and profits would beg to differ with you. (ads on google search results are generally highly relevant and get clicked a lot)
you are right, however, if the people you are generalizing for are HN folks, and websites other than Google.
Revenue and relevance is not quite the same. A 1% clickthrough rate would lead to great revenue for all concerned, but it still means I'm annoying 99% of my users (or one user 99% of the time).
Of course, not all non-clickers would be terribly annoyed, but many of the clickers might still be annoyed by the distraction even though the ad was relevant enough to click on.
When I have to watch that very same 30 second Hoodie Footie Pajamagram - the perfect way to snuggle up - segment before each and every 3m news video on CNBC it's a torture for my brain.
I wish more sites gave me a reasonable way to buy myself freedom from that "highly relevant" bloat.
[Edit] As a service provider, I appreciate the convenient excuse you provide for torturing my users ;-)