Posted at 2020-07-17
One of the goals of gemini is to free us from advertisement. Indeed, how can anyone inject those JS-heavy spying ads if there's no technical possibility, right?
According to the gemini spec, clients can provide TLS certificates. I think it can be used for identification of people. If a lot of gemini servers start collectively gather data about a user that has that very certificate, they'll be able to create a portrait of that user.
Gemini pages can be created dynamically. Once an identificated user visits a page, the server may generate a page for him with an embedded advertisement.
Feel tired? Why don't you try our 〇 product that will reduce your strain? Buy our product at 〇://〇.scam/buybuybuy.
The block above is how ads could look. Does gemini feel that anonymous anymore? As for me, I don't really care about technical possibility of inserting ads on gemini pages. No one is going to actually do it because it is hard and all gemini users are geeks and nerds that are not really interested in inserting ads.
What will work in gemini, it's recommendations!
There's that cool site called Psychopolitica written by Nikita Petrov, a fellow Russian. Originally I found him on Twitter; I instantly liked (not pressed the button, the other meaning of the word) his userpic which depicted a nice amanita muscaria. Looks like Nikita likes fungi just as I do. Oh boy, one day I'll write an essay telling how awesome fungi are. They are so beautiful and romantic!
One day Nikita wants to print a magazine! It's called just as the site — Psychopolitica. Sounds rad, not gonna lie. While reading all of his posts, I found that he'd be happy to send the first issue of Psychopolitica for free to anyone who follows the site, shares it and texts the author. I did everything. This very text is that sharing part. Please take a look :)
That Psychopolitica site (attention geminauts, it's web)
If I remember correctly, the articles state that you have to subscribe using email. I used RSS and Nikita told me that it's ok.
I hope you'll like it
What would you prefer: recommendations or faceless ads? I'd prefer recommendations.