It would take a book to express my full reaction, but let’s skip all that, and just let me say thanks to the author for an inspiring, thoughtful piece that helps renew my enthusisam for the world I work in.

Sure, none of us can know exactly how this will play out, but you are so on the right track.

Advertisers will need to learn the language of good design which leads to great experiences. This leads to people saying positive things (uhhhh, word of mouth anyone?). It’s why we talk about Trader Joe’s like they have liberated us from the opression of Supermarket mega chains.

Advertising will adapt. Some individuals wont. Those will be the ones who die to use your analogy. The rest will evolve into a new kind of organism, much better equipped to thrive in the world of the enlightened, empowered customer.

I don’t believe the myth that users expect everything for free. I think HBO, the Wall Street Journal, Consumer Reports, and, yes, 37Signals have all proved, among others, that people will pay for quality content and services.

People will pay for value. The trick is understanding what that value is.

In the current world of advertising sponsorships of content, the content producer focuses less on the value to the consumer and, instead, focuses on delivering value to the advertiser. Sometimes, they can deliver that value by producing high-quality audiences for the advertisers. But, more times than not, they don’t.

Since advertisers can’t tell if their spend is working for them, it wasn’t worth the effort to make something people really want. The result is advertiser-sponsored content bends to the mediocre.

I think that if companies focus on delivering a great experience (which we know means having great content with a frustration-free delivery), we’ll see them have no trouble getting people to pay for it.

Advertisers not required.

If I agree with what you said, I see an interesting dilemma. It seems to me that services like Google adsense have provided developers with a tack on business model/revenue generator. With the death of advertising how do you see startups funding themselves in a world where users expect everything for free. Do you see a media startups building their own targeted ad engines ? Very few startups, especially of the media type, have found viability with a suscription service. Only a few notables come to mind like 37 signals, saleforce.com, etc.. and they seem to be oriented for business rather than personal use. I am very interested to hear your opinion on this. Keep up the great work, I look forward to your posts.