The next attention-grabbing post you see in your Reddit feed might just be a paid 'free-form ad'.

Calling them “free-form ads,” Reddit said the new advertisements are its most native format ever, designed to look and feel like community content shared by real people.

The ads, meant to mimic the site’s megathreads, will enable advertisers to utilize a variety of formats in one post, including images, videos, and text.

According to numbers from Reddit, free-form ads got 28% more clicks than all other types of ads on the site and saw a jump in community engagement.

The next time you see an interesting post in your Reddit feed, take a closer look - because it might just be a paid advertisement.

  • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
    42·
    8 months ago

    It’s illegal here in Germany. Ads need to be clearly recognizable as such.

      • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
        8·
        8 months ago

        Honestly, I expect them to just remain in violation, unless they get sued or reprimanded by one of our user protection organisations.

        But yeah, they can serve different frontends or just with different configuration for different user groups. They probably do that already, e.g. to display a cookie banner for users in the EU.

      • Miaou@jlai.luEnglish
        6·
        8 months ago

        Yup. Just moving between German and French websites can be a pain in the ass. Default filters in shops, prices with or without taxes displayed first for professional things, different menus etc. They can be different in the most subtle ways, which is way worse imo.

        Don’t get me started on websites who think they know better than you which website you’d like to visit. Stop redirecting me based on my IP or language settings! OK now I’m just venting sorry

        • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
          41·
          8 months ago

          Sounds like you need EXPRESS® VPN™! Use code LEMMY at checkout for 10% off!

          (/s, but I hope that was obvious)