I think as a child I got viruses from one of the ads, you know, the ones would put on the side of the site. We had to call in a guy, to clean parents’ computer. I felt really guilty and never touched those ads again.
So Google’s and Meta’s main business are ads. And recently I felt confused. Do people click on ads? Don’t these ads feel phishy to them?
I go out of my way not to do so. Whenever I search for some specific items and see “Sponsored,” I’ll scroll down until I get the same listing without the ad link.