By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 05/09/2026Jedi Blue was just the icing on the cake. The reality is they didn't need the conspiracy: once Google was selling services to advertisers *and* publishers on an exchange that Google owned, they created an entire *universe* of ways to rip off both advertisers and publishers. 180
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 05/09/2026Now consider that Google is *also* an advertiser and *also* a web publisher, and the opportunities to cheat are just *wild*. 170
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 05/09/2026The numbers tell the story. Before Googbook captured 80% of the display advertising business, the *total* share of the advertising industry's revenues that went to "intermediaries" (middlemen like ad agencies, ad buyers, etc) was about 15%. 191