I find "native" advertising pretty shady. Google is already heavily criticized for ads that are hard to make out as ads in SERPs or product searches.
I also think consumers get wise to it over time and it starts to get mentally blocked out.
I'd say YouTube is probably Google's most effective hedge against a future where all the revenue is in branding/display ads. However, if you look at last quarter's results, non-ad "Other" revenue is now 10%, whereas ads used to supply 98% of revenue. The "Other" revenue is also growing 50% year over year. It may very well be that Google gets eclipsed or disrupted, but might end up eclipsing or disrupting its own ads business, especially as "apps" tend to take over user attention, and "Web" ads decline.
It's true that people quickly mentally block out adverts. Even on YouTube, I ignore the advert and anxiously wait for the "skip ad" button to appear. Doesn't everyone?
I also think consumers get wise to it over time and it starts to get mentally blocked out.
I'd say YouTube is probably Google's most effective hedge against a future where all the revenue is in branding/display ads. However, if you look at last quarter's results, non-ad "Other" revenue is now 10%, whereas ads used to supply 98% of revenue. The "Other" revenue is also growing 50% year over year. It may very well be that Google gets eclipsed or disrupted, but might end up eclipsing or disrupting its own ads business, especially as "apps" tend to take over user attention, and "Web" ads decline.